Dream a Dream
by Azurite
Summary: A doujinfic based off of Clara's School Daze fic. Kagome is an ordinary girl sent to protect her brother... at an all boy's school. But the people are familiar, and something's amiss... [REVISED - 2005]
1. And so it begins…

**Dream A Dream  
Chapter 1:** And So It Begins  
**Revised as of 4/24/05** - No more fangirl Japanese!  
**An _Inuyasha_ Fanfiction  
By:** Azurite - azurite AT fanfiction DOT net

* * *

**READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! **

Well, with summer around the corner, everyone's writing fantastic fics! It's really good for the drought we've seemed to have on really good, long dramatic fics, ne? Well, my two absolute favorites (as of this moment) are Ookami-nee-chan's Turnabout is Fair Play, and Clara's School Daze. 

Now, maybe I'm alone in this boat, but have any of you read a fic, loved it to bits, but wondered what would have happened if just a little something were different? Okay, maybe not. But in my case, I have. I was reading Clara's School Daze, and wondered—what would happen if the story WASN'T AU (Alternate Universe)? 

Of course, the first thought running through my head was How would you pull _that_ off! followed by You'd need Clara's permission, of course, and then But you're already _working_ on an Inuyasha fic, stupid! But now, the idea won't get out of my head, and while I patiently wait for the next chapter of the OFFICIAL School Daze, I offer to you the School Daze—and YES, I have gotten Clara's permission. 

I highly recommend that you read "School Daze" before or while reading this. It's not necessary, but it would probably help clarify some things. However, I'm taking a lot of liberties with Clara's idea—such as replacing the names of the schools, but keeping certain facts (again, read the fic to understand) intact. Read that, and this won't seem so strange. Don't flame me on this note here, either, because here I am, explaining the whole thing. P 

**Major differences between this fic and the Inuyasha series...**  
Souta is 12-years-old (give or take a few months) and in his first year of junior high (7th grade in Japan), rather than 9-10 years old and only in 3rd grade (elementary school). This means that he's only three-and-a-half years younger than Kagome in this fic, rather than five or six years younger.  
On that note, Kagome is in 9th grade (age 15-16) at the start of the Inuyasha series. Since this is NOT an AU, and we can presume she and Inuyasha have been adventuring for some time now, she's 16 years old and has graduated to high school, or 10th grade (senior high, 1st year). But of course, the real details will be revealed as the story goes along... 

Oh, and of course, go check out Clara's website hopefully she'll update SD there first  
http/ size=1 width=100% noshade>**Author's Notes (The official ones): **

(1) I don't own Inuyasha, or the of this fic. I do own, however, the idea to take SD and make it a non-Alternate Universe.  
(2) Yes, I asked permission to use Clara's ideas, but once again, I'm changing some things around to make it true that the story is still Inuyasha—and not AU.  
(3) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review! ;;  
(4) Finally, this fic will may alternate from 1st person (Kagome's perspective) to 3rd person (S/He said). A scene change without a change of POV is indicated by ONE horizontal rule. When I switch from 3rd person to Kagome's perspective, there will be TWO horizontal rules. 

"like, this is speech"  
_and these are thoughts  
_**and these words are EMPHASIZED!**

**The final note:** Since this is supposed to be in Japan, I try to convert as much Japanese slang into English as possible. Therefore, the dialogue between "the guys" won't necessarily be grammatically correct, but it will be realistic.

* * *

"All that we see or seen  
Is but a dream within a dream."  
--Edgar Allan Poe

* * *

Kagome opened her eyes with a good deal of reluctance. The bright haze of the morning sun was filtering into her room through the bedroom window, the rays striking her face without second thought to how much Kagome wanted to stay in bed. It certainly wasn't a pleasant way to wake up in the morning—though even if had been raining outside, it was doubtful Kagome would have been any happier. She hadn't been looking forward to this day—in fact, she'd downright been protesting it all week. 

In her heart of hearts, she knew she couldn't back away, not at the last minute. She knew where her loyalties lay, and what her duty called her to do. Today was the day she would leave her home and everything she had grown to love and depend on the past sixteen years. All for one boy 

Tossing her legs over the fluffy mattress, Kagome stood on wobbly feet. She stumbled over to her vanity mirror, one of the last pieces of furniture in her room that spoke anything of her feminity. She raised clouded gray-blue eyes to the mirror, shaking her head at the tired reflection that stared back at her. 

Fingering the ends of her once-long locks, now only reaching the nape of her neck, Kagome looked exactly as her grandfather expected her to. 

Like a boy. 

This was for Souta, Kagome reminded herself. All for her dear little brother, and though he could be a pain, he didn't deserve to be hurt at school. For the past seven years, he'd been attending an all-boy's private boarding school on the edge of town, rather than a co-ed public school. Kagome couldn't really remember why Souta went to Yumegaru Shiritsu Gakkou –with grades from elementary school all the way up to senior high, just for boys— but she guessed it had something to do with their father having gone there. Before he died, he'd had a great attachment to that school 

In any case, whenever Souta came home –for the weekends, holidays, or just for a brief after school visit—he wasn't himself. The boy Kagome had always associated with and disappeared, and in his stead was a sad, withdrawn child, who, nowadays, seemed rather lonesome. Kagome's mother had told her that she'd caught Souta hiding a rather large bruise—and that when she'd asked him about it, he'd told her it was nothing. Yet with the way he kept getting skinnier, always seeming more and more depressed Kagome's mother and grandfather had urged her to do something about it and here she was. 

Really, it was grandfather's harebrained idea mother hadn't even been totally supportive of it at first, but for the safety of her son 

And so, Kagome Higurashi, her brother's keeper, became one fine spring day.

* * *

When Kagome arrived at the school, she promptly looked for the building in which her brother was supposed to be housed. She herself had yet to find out where she would be staying as a student, but Souta at least had a right to know that he was being looked out for. He probably wouldn't like the idea very much, but considering how much Kagome had given up, he'd have to understand. It wasn't so much that she was mad at him; she would have shaved her head bald if it meant her brother's well-being was looked out for, but it had all been very unexpected to have to do it at all. 

The whole idea of making Kagome a boy had been shotgun, and her grandfather had barely given her time to protest before everything was said and done. 

The sixteen-year-old spied her brother trudging in her direction, his eyes focused only on the floor in front of him. Though his face was downcast, it was plain to see the smudges of dirt and tears on his cheeks, the matted hair sticking to his brow, and how his uniform was in disarray. Souta's sorrow was almost visible, with the way it tumbled off his thin frame in waves. He was clutching his textbooks as if they were going to slip away from him, his knuckles quite obviously white from the stress he was placing on them. Souta scuffled his once-pristine shoes, dragging them along the tiles as if each foot bore the weight of the world on them. 

But what surprised Kagome the most had to be the fact that they were entirely alone in the halls. There was not a single other person anywhere in sight. It made Kagome wonder to herself just how many friends Souta had in this school. No one deserved to be so alone. It was disheartening, to see anyone like this. 

"Souta!" She called, her voice sounding an octave or so lower than was normal. It was odd, hearing a voice that both _was_ and _wasn't_ her own sounding from her lips. Judging by the way her brother froze in his tracks, Kagome knew he'd recognized the voice regardless. Slowly, disbelievingly, he turned around and looked at his elder sister with the most hopeful look she'd ever seen him give anyone. 

"B-Big Sis?" he whispered hoarsely. Kagome nodded slowly. The disbelief in his eyes grew.  
"What in God's name are you doing here?" Kagome gave him a feeble impression of her usual grin.  
"Hey Souta, mom isn't the only one who's noticed the bruises on your arms and face or how downright _skinny_ you've become." 

His eyes widened in surprise. Kagome suppressed the urge to laugh-- what, the kid thought that she didn't notice him using her makeup to cover the discoloration on his cheeks? Then his brown eyes narrowed suspiciously. 

"Mom sent _you_ to protect me?"  
"Are you crazy?" Kagome asked, widening her eyes to prove her complete and total innocence. Some relief brightened the expression on his face, but it fell immediately when he heard her next words.  
"Grandpa did!"

* * *

I suppose I should tell you where all this began-- I mean, when the family first started noticing that something was wrong with Souta. You know how people say "the little things add up"? Yeah, well, it's like that. 

It was the little things that Mom, and Grandpa and I kept noticing. Like how whenever we were talking about baseball --one of Grandpa's past-times (or should I say "obsessions"?) and Grandpa or I pretended to swing-- Souta would flinch. Any sudden movement we made, and he'd shrink back, as if we were monsters. Then, when Souta and I were making rice cakes in the kitchen, and Souta rolled up his sleeves, I noticed a distinctly purple patch on the upper left side of his left arm. I asked him about it, and he quickly covered it up, trying not to make a fuss about it, but doing just that by avoiding my question. 

As I said, the little things kept building up-- until one day, a little less than a month ago, in fact, when Mother walked in on Souta changing. She'd been bringing him his cleaned uniform, and saw him without his shirt on-- and noticed several bruises near Souta's ribs. She'd immediately demanded an explanation, of course, but Souta had neatly dodged around the subject, making the grandiose claim that he was twelve years old and a _boy_, and therefore could take care of himself. 

Mother didn't know what to do. Grandpa, of course, had the immediate solution-- I, being Souta's older sister, and therefore his guardian, should watch over him. It was a perfectly good idea in and of itself, but neither I nor Grandpa was blind to the fact that Souta wouldn't appreciate being hovered over, and especially not transferred out of his school because we believed that he couldn't "take care of himself," as he'd claimed. 

So therein lay our problem. Of course, the metaphorical light bulb soon shone above my Grandpa's head, and he suggested-- "Why, Kagome, you can go to Souta's school!" And despite it being ludicrous from the start, it had seemed like the only _feasible_ solution at the time. Mother had called the school, hoping that the administration could do something about it, before Grandpa took these drastic measures... 

Of course, they could find nothing wrong in their "well-bred" and "mature" young students. Bah. Of course not. The past week has been hell for me, mind you, since Grandpa decided to take me shopping for boy's clothes, and teach me "boy" things. It was stupid. 

Being the end of March, the new school year was about to start soon. It would be my first year attending a school where I didn't know anyone-- anyone my age, that is. My friends had no idea that I was transferring. 

Knowing Grandpa, he'd probably make up some excuse about me going to a foreign country, or contracting some rare and terminal disease... I was being selfish, I knew, but I couldn't help wonder-- just how was _I_ going to help Souta, if he wouldn't help himself?

* * *

Three days before I was expected to show up at Yumegaru Shiritsu Gakkou, my grandfather cut my hair. 

I had screamed so loudly afterwards, the neighbors woke up, and called us to make sure everything was okay. A totally false explanation was given, and no more was said. But I couldn't get over it-- my hair, her precious, silky black hair... cropped to the the back of my skull. There wasn't even enough hair to take my long bangs and make a ponytail. At least _that_ would have allowed me to look somewhat like a girl when I needed to. 

It mattered not. As long as I was in the school, and _acted_ like a boy, then I would serve my purpose. Aside from my primary goal to protect Souta, and find out who was responsible for his beatings, I would also be learning-- going to the high school portion of YSG, in the 10th grade. I'd made lifelong friends in junior high, and many of them had attended the first year of high school with me as well, back when I was still a "she." 

But now, I had to pretend... 

After I spotted Souta, one of the faculty members found me-- and insisted Souta take me to the headmaster's room. I half-expected to see a large, rotund man with a harsh expression and unforgiving eyes sitting in that office. I also had a feeling I wouldn't like _any_ of the teachers here. After all, who would teach at such a sexist, _biased _school? Wasn't that what all private, single-sex academies were, anyway? 

To my surprise, the headmaster was a woman-- and a rather old one at that. Through her wrinkles, once could discern the air of wisdom about her, and her eyes, ever searching me even as I stood, rigid straight before her, sparkled. The brass nameplate on her immaculate desk simply read "Headmaster Kaede" there was no other clue indicating her personality or attitude. Not even a single picture decorated the walls; the room was as barren and clean as a hospital. 

"I would like to formally welcome you to Yumegaru Shiritsu School for Boys," she began, nodding as Souta closed the door behind me. He left, and though I was worried about leaving him behind, I somehow felt more worried about what Headmaster Kaede would say to me. What if she saw right through my disguise? What if she didn't care that Souta was endangered by other students here at YSG, and simply sent me out? 

I couldn't let that happen. 

"Getting to the point, this place is a very prestigious school. We do not accept delinquency of any kind; your hair must be combed at all times, your shirt tucked in neatly, and your pants the proper size." 

I gulped, tugging at my collar slightly. This place was _strict_. And I thought normal school was bad, making you wear a uniform every day, and preventing perms, contacts, jewelry, and electronics in class. What's more, we had to change shoes between every class... how did Souta stand it here, where things seemed ten times worse than public schools? 

Of course, I guess it was because I'd gone to an all-girl's public high school before-- not private, and not boarding. Girls were just more well-mannered, I supposed, so rules weren't as strict. 

"Finally, we do not accept slackers. It is a wonder that you have been accepted so quickly, but your grades and conduct from your previous school--" I paled. Did Grandpa forge my old school documents? 

"...Indicate that you are very studious. Laze off, and not only will it count against your grade, but also on your citizenship grade." Headmaster Kaede gave me a look that said "Understand? Good" and nodded brusquely. She straightened some papers and slid them into a manila folder, glancing only slightly at the right of the top paper. 

"You will be bunking with the honorable Hojo Hajemu." There was a moment of silence, and then, to my surprise, the stiff expression on her face melted away, to be replaced with a comforting smile. 

"I'm sorry to be so strict and all, but it's mandatory. Formalities and policy, you know." 

I nodded dumbly, too startled to say anything. She'd suddenly transformed from a hag into a grandmother. I blinked. 

"Regardless, I'm glad that you selected Yumegaru Shiritsu as your high school of choice. I see your younger brother attends our junior high?" 

"Y-Yes... he's a first year student." I managed. _'Right. Souta-- my brother. He's the reason I'm here. My little brother Souta, age twelve, in his first year of junior high... ' _

Headmaster Kaede nodded, doubtless already knowing this information, while I stood there, feeling all the stupider. 

"On a more random note, Mr. Miroku Priest will be giving you a tour of the school. He's in your grade level, so you shouldn't worry about him acting condescending or anything. He's a very intelligent and pleasant young man... once you get past his odd eccentricities." 

I gulped again. Eccentricities? The image of a shrunken little boy with coke-bottle glasses and an obsession with bugs came into my mind. 

"W-What do you mean, odd eccentricities?" I dared to ask, turning as Headmaster Kaede stood, walking me to the door. She only smiled, a knowing, amused smile. 

"You'll see." Sadly, that wasn't very comforting. I found myself swallowing deeply, praying to high heaven that my overactive imagination wasn't correct.

Headmaster Kaede pressed the button for the intercom. "Miss Shikyo, will you please send in Mr. Miroku?"

"Right away!" came the instantaneous and slightly anxious reply. Again, I was filled with the sense of utter dread and confusion. With my luck, this guy was probably some time of obnoxious jerk who was full of himself.

My thoughts were cut short when a the door opened, and a young man poked his head in the doorway. As my eyes met his, I felt a sudden sense of déjà vu, but if I'd ever seen someone with-- that was when my glance caught upon the small ponytail that hung at the nape of his neck. My own hand reached up to my now cropped hair, and I had that familiar urge to scream. My beautiful hair! My long, luxurious locks of black hair that I—

"Hi!" the boy chirped cheerfully. "My name is Miroku Priest."

"Kagome Higurashi," I answered curtly. Needless to say, my tone was much more restrained than his.

"Kagome?" he repeated, sounding faintly surprised. The name 'Kagome' was a girl's name, to be sure, but there _were_ boys who had it. If he questioned it, I'd be sure to give him an earful. 

I gave him a warning glance instead, trying to ignore the sweat gathering on my palms. This would be a bad time for him to figure out that I wasn't a boy... His face flashed with something I couldn't decipher, and I gulped for a moment. Surely, if Headmaster Kaede hadn't seen through my disguise, then Miroku wouldn't be able to... 

Thankfully, he let it drop.

Miroku gave me a short and condensed tour of the school, and throughout it, my worries about him vanished. I still didn't know what his "odd eccentricities" were, and that curious thought kept nagging at the back of my mind, but it really didn't bother me _that_ much. Whatever it was, it couldn't have been that bad. After all, the guy did seem pretty popular, with all the people he introduced 

My hard-soled shoes clicked quietly on the tiled floor as I followed Miroku, nodding at the times it seemed appropriate to nod. My bags were starting to feel heavy. The shoes I was wearing were men's shoes-- two sizes larger than my normal shoes, but as close a fit as I could manage. The rest of my outfit, too, was tailored for boys, and I was unaccustomed to the strange creases and binding cloth that restricted my more 'feminine curves.' 

Grandpa had the time of his life when he brought me to the department stores to buy clothing. Although I know loves me as I am, I also know that he had wanted me to be a boy. 

My mother routinely told me that when Grandpa found out she was pregnant, he had bought several baseballs and gloves, and even two bats. One large one for him, and one pint sized one for me. When he found out I was a girl, he was so disappointed he pitched the balls and gloves and bats into the fire. Whenever I'm reminded of that, it nearly breaks my heart.

My grandfather got used to me being a girl a year after I was born. It took him a while to accept fate, though. In fact, he didn't talk to my mom for a complete month. Hah. As if she had the power to decide what gender I was going to be.

Grandpa was—**is**—crazy.

But even if he eventually got over me being female, he oftentimes still treated me like a boy. I found myself continually dragged along to several sporting events when I was younger. Grandpa had a soft spot for baseball, though. Sometimes, Mom would come home from work and would find Grandpa and I missing, but there were other times when she would be there to see us off. She would tell me that whenever she _was_ home when we were on our way to one of our numerous "baseball stops", she would be near tears from laughing so hard. Why? Well, Grandpa was a rabid baseball fan, but he hated losing. Since it is nearly impossible to find a team that has a continuous winning streak, he almost always switched teams on a weekly basis.

He always expressed his "loyalty" to the teams by dressing me up completely in anything that has to do with baseball. Including those ridiculously huge hands that had one finger up and the "Number One Fan of insert team here" on it. I had about five of those when I was a kid, all for different and, quite often, opposing teams.

Don't get me wrong, though. As much as Grandpa spoiled me as a boy, he spoiled me ten times more as a girl. I remember one time with crystalline clarity walking back from a baseball game and seeing a popular doll in the store window. Grandpa didn't notice I wasn't walking by his side and had continued walking and talking about how our new team wasn't really our team anymore. When he noticed I wasn't enthusiastically answering him, he stopped and turned around. There I was, face pressed against the glass as if I could somehow walk through the wall blocking me from my desire. Grandpa smiled fondly, walked back to me, took my hand, then led me into the store. A few minutes later, we walked back out, still hand in hand. But this time we both were holding two dolls, me with an ecstatic look on my face, and Grandpa with a slightly resigned expression.

Grandpa and I did everything together.

Then, fatefully, three and a half years after I was born, my little brother Souta entered this world. When he came into the picture, it became Grandpa, Kagome, AND Souta.

Just because of that, I hated my little brother.

That didn't last long. After he stopped drooling and screaming all the time, and started to become more interested in baseball, I grew to love him just as much as I loved Grandpa and baseball. Speaking of which, due to grandpa's obsession with baseball, _I_ also became obsessed. It became almost like a second nature to me. When I grew older and could hold a bat without taking off a person's head, let alone my own, I joined every league I could. T-ball, little league, softball, then good old regular baseball. It was hard for me to play good old regular baseball, though. There was always that awful stereotype that girls had to play softball and not baseball, and that essentially they were the same thing. This made me want to scream, since baseball and softball are completely different things. Baseball was my life. It wasn't until the end of this whole ordeal when I grew to hate it, but that's getting ahead of myself.

Anyway, at this point in time, I literally breathed, ate, and slept baseball. I'm exaggerating (just a little), but bear with me. You can probably imagine my great and utter joy at the surprise of finding out that this school had a baseball team. It might sound silly about being excited about something that is most likely guaranteed to be at a school (since most Japanese high schools usually have baseball), but I couldn't help it.

"Hey," Miroku said, sounding slightly nervous. I adjusted my bags. "I hope you like—"

"—Baseball!" I cut in, my face radiating excitement.

"...because it's rather important here," he finished, grinning slightly. "I'm taking it you enjoy baseball?"

"I live for it," was my answer.

"GREAT!" Heads turned to look at the pigtailed boy doing a touchdown dance in the middle of the hall. I frowned slightly. Would that be considered as unruly behavior, and would Headmaster Kaede give him a detention or something? I shrugged a little to myself, figuring that if they thought Miroku was apparently safe enough to allow giving tours around the school, then it wasn't bad that a guy was dancing in the middle of the hall. 

"Akira left this school last year, and we're in desperate need of a GOOD baseball player," Miroku paused for a moment, thinking over his words. "Are you good?"

I gave him a dry look. "I've been playing since I could walk."

"I'm taking that that means you're good. GREAT!" He paused again, his look abruptly turning crestfallen. "But Inu's really strict."

"Inu?" My eyes clouded again. The name... well, the word, anyway... it sounded familiar. This was odd. I shook off the feeling, and turned towards Miroku again. This "Inu" person was named after a_ dog_?

"Yeah, his complete name's Inuyasha. Don't tease him about that, though. He'll flatten you." Miroku gave me a grin. "The guy's scary when he wants to be. And he's like this year round, but he's worse when we're on season. Since we're off-season, you don't have to worry as much. He's more tolerable off-season, and even a pretty cool guy. Hey, I'll introduce you to him at lunch, 'kay? We don't have any classes yet, since it technically is still break..."

Miroku lead me into a large room filled with long tables all lined neatly in a row. "Cafeteria," was his curt explanation. There were several people sitting at these tables, either playing cards or talking or frantically finishing the new school year's work, stuff assigned during March, when Japanese students moved on from their previous grade. Having transferred schools, I had no such assignments-- quite a relief, actually. 

"That's Eiji over there. He's our catcher. Inuyasha's our pitcher and team captain." Miroku's voice still had that excited tone to it. 

"Hey, Eiji!"

One of the boys who was scribbling anxiously on a piece of paper at the table nearest to us held up his hand. He had an unruly mop of black hair (I wonder if Headmaster Kaede ever got on his case about that) and a pair of thick glasses, but a rather attractive face. I bit my tongue. This was NOT the place for me to be checking out boys! "I can't talk right now, Miroku. I've still got two pages to do!"

My tour guide shook his head. "Your loss, Eiji." He turned to me, smirking, "Come on, he doesn't need to know about you-- our new star player..." I sweatdropped, but kept silent, knowing how Miroku was playing his words.

But his words had the expected effect-- Eiji perked up immediately.

"Has he tried out yet? How good is he? Do you think we'll actually be able to WIN this time? Will..." Eiji shot out each question at a rapid fire pace, and his pencil snapped in his hands with how excited he was.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Miroku held up a hand. "Slow down there, buddy. Anyway, to answer your first question, no, he hasn't tried out. He won't until we start this season. You know that!"

Eiji sighed and nodded. "Well, I hope he is good enough..."

I shifted from foot to foot; adjusting my rather heavy bags again so they wouldn't cut off the circulation in my hands, then gave Miroku a half-hearted glare. He and Eiji were talking about me as if I wasn't there, and truthfully, I really wanted to set these bags down in my dorm. "Hey, Miroku... as interesting as this conversation is, and as much as I'd like to join your guys' team, these bags aren't feathers, you know..."

Miroku had the decency to blush. "Right, right. Sorry... I forgot. Who are you bunking with again?" He cleared his throat, and looked down at the papers I hadn't known he was holding. "HOJO!"

Eiji choked, then laughed. He tried to smother it with a cough, but failed miserably. "Don't mind Miroku, uh...what did you say your name was again?"

"Higurashi Kagome."

Eiji gave me an odd look, and I gave him the same warning glance I had given Miroku. "Ah, well, Inuyasha has a weird name, too. Anyway, why I'm saying you shouldn't mind Miroku is 'cause he and Hojo are long-time enemies. Though I'm not really sure if Hojo _knows_ he and Miroku hate each other. The guy's... kinda absent-minded."

"Uh, why do they hate each other?"

"Eh, Priest is just a dumbass. You get used to it after awhile..."

Miroku muttered something inappropriate and grabbed one of the chairs, sitting down backwards on it. "Kagome's new here. He's a transfer student from some place, and has got a brother that goes here." He sounded rather bored, and I made a rude gesture with my hand in his general direction. My hand that was hidden by my thousand pound bag, that is. The guy already forgot about taking me to my dorm!

Completely ignoring me, Miroku struck up a conversation with Eiji about baseball and girls. Giving up, I sighed and dropped my bags, closing my eyes and ordering myself to take deep breaths. 

_'I can calm down, I WILL calm down...'_

I gave up and dropped my three bags, then sat down on the largest one. I suppose if it weren't for my name or my general discomfort, one might notice that I pack "like a girl." Of my three bags, one of them was entirely full of "feminine products" -- stuff like pads, tampons, chapstick, brushes... although now that I thought about it, it was doubtful I'd ever _need_ my brushes. With my short, cropped hair... I sighed.

While Miroku and Eiji chatted as if they hadn't seen each other for years, I looked around. I had to admit, this school was much nicer than my old schools had ever been. I snorted lightly. It was probably more advanced, too. While searching for Souta earlier, I'd passed by the shoe lockers-- and sulked for the brief moment I was there, noting how this school had freshly painted cubby holes, and each locker had a tiny brass plate on it with the students' names.

After a few moments of intense conversing, Miroku suddenly remembered that I existed. He jumped up, looking guilty. The abrupt motion startled me from my sleepy reverie, and through hazy eyes I noticed Miroku's apologetic smile. 

"Sorry, sorry." He stumbled out of his chair, scratching the back of his head. "Bye, Eiji."

"Later, Miroku." He smiled brightly at me. "Bye, Kagome."

"Nice meeting you," I said politely around my yawn. I fumbled around for a moment, then stood up, swaying ever so slightly. Miroku gave me a curious glance, and I shrugged. "What can I say? I've been up since four-thirty this morning... I'm a bit tired."

"Damn. That must have sucked. Come on, I'll show you to your room." Miroku turned, and gestured towards me with his arm, while I rolled my eyes.

"You make it sound like a hotel..."

* * *

When I woke up to Miroku pounding on my door, it was already almost time for dinner. Hojo wasn't here yet, and I wasn't sure if I was pleased with that fact or not.

I rubbed my eyes sleepily and then opened the door. 

"Mnuh?"

Okay, so I wasn't quite coherent yet.

"Come on man, it's time for dinner!" Miroku so kindly grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me towards the cafeteria. I sort of shouted-slash-mumbled my protests, which fell completely on deaf ears.

The cafeteria was jam-packed with people, up to the point where some boys were sitting on the floor. I blinked a couple of times, partially because I was half-asleep, and partially because I thought I was seeing things. Damn. This place was _crowded_.

"Hey, Miroku! We're sitting outside, okay?"

I looked around to try and match a face with the voice that had called out, but to no avail. There were just too many people around, and if they weren't shoving food in their mouth, they were talking to the people next to them. The crowds were so thick, thronging around us, it was a wonder Miroku had heard whoever it was had called him at all.

"I already knew that, Kouga, you idiot! I already got some food for me and Kagome." Once again, I was dragged away from the cafeteria, this time to a door I hadn't noticed before. Miroku pushed it open, and shoved me out into the real world.

"Nnn! Bright!" I shielded my eyes with my hand, only to be shoved again, this times towards a group of silhouettes. Guessing they were the ones I was supposed to go to, I plunked by the nearest person, closing my eyes and letting out a slight snore. I was still sleepy.

"Hey guys! This is Kagome, the new kid I was talking about!"

"He doesn't look like much," a scathing voice answered. My eyes snapped open abruptly, and most of the sleepiness fled my body. I half-heartedly opened my eyes, but I was still close to falling asleep.

What suddenly filled my line of sight made me wish I had gotten those missed hours of sleep that I'd missed this morning packing-- and that I looked like a girl, and not a boy.

Sitting in front of me was a boy. Not surprising. But there was only one way to describe this boy, and that was gorgeous. Breathtakingly, amazingly gorgeous. Or at least very pretty. He hand long black hair and such deep violet eyes that they seemed to be looking into my very soul. I was suddenly very self-conscious, so I averted my gaze, pretending to be blinded by the sun-- which was still up, since it was spring, and sunset wouldn't be for a few hours now. Still, there was something _else_ about this boy... something that I should know?

"Hey! Bear with me, I only got two hours of sleep last night," I grumbled, sulking to myself in an exaggerated fashion.

But... he had something I wanted.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean it in a perverted way. Sure, he had a nice body --from what I could see-- but what REALLY got me was his hair. Something that _I_ now lacked, and he had so very much of. Miroku was one thing, with his sprout-like ponytail, but this boy...

...I was going to hurt Grandpa.

"Doesn't matter," the boy snapped. I glared balefully at him. As handsome as he was, his personality just stunk. And that's a major turn-off.

"Hey, Inuyasha, don't be too hard on him. The boy's new," a distinctly _female_ voice admonished. My head swung around to look at the girl.

"Uh..."

"Psst, Kagome. Don't worry about Sango, she goes to the school near here. We're allowed to have girls on campus on weekends and whatnot, but not during school days," Miroku grinned, then put an arm around Sango's shoulders. The pretty girl elbowed him in the ribs, and I blinked curiously.

"What school near here?"

Sango gave me a curious look. "You must be REALLY new here." Then she pointed over her shoulder.

Across the street was a school clearly labeled: Yumegaru Shiritsu Jyoshokou-- the girl's equivalent of _this_ private school!

I changed my mind. I was going to KILL Grandpa.

I sighed out of resigned acceptance, I looked around the small group thoughtfully. I considered each person. There were two girls in the group whom I hadn't noticed at first, and three other boys besides Miroku and, well, me. I immediately recognized Eiji, and I already gathered that the pretty boy with long black hair was Inuyasha; the girl who Miroku had his arm around was Sango, but as for the others, I hadn't the faintest idea who they were.

Man, I must have made a really odd boy.

"Kagome," Miroku said to get my attention. He still had his arms around Sango, and Sango still did not look all too pleased with the arrangement, "Meet everyone. Everyone, meet Kagome."

In return to this brief introduction, Miroku received six deadpan looks.

"All right, all right..." He sighed in mock surrender, then pointed to Inuyasha. "Kagome, this is Inuyasha. I told you about him earlier." Inuyasha raised his eyebrow at Miroku, but the pigtailed boy shrugged. "Beside him is his girlfriend, Kikyou"

The raised eyebrow turned into an evil glare. "She is _not_ my girlfriend." For a moment, Kinky's well-composed face fell, but then she straightened herself and had a distinctly determined look on her face.

I didn't know whether to feel relieved or not. That they were only friends, that is.

"Well, whatever. We'll get into that whole debate later. Anyway, you've already met Eiji, and this gorgeous and luminous young lady is Miss Sango Youtaijiya." Sango elbowed him again, and he yelped and released her, rubbing his tender ribs and pouting.

Sango shook her head. "Don't mind Miroku the Idiot," she smiled sweetly at Miroku, who shot a doleful look at her, "He's just a huge pervert."

So **that's** what Headmaster Kaede meant by 'odd eccentricities.'

"And last, but definitely not least," Miroku continued, straightening once more, "The boy sitting beside the lovely Miss Kikyou is Kouga. Don't expect anything nice to come out of this guy's mouth. He's as dense as they get, and has that permanent foot-in-the-mouth syndrome. But it's all just a mask to make himself look cool. He actually gets better grades than me!"

Kouga glared at Miroku but he had the decency not to retaliate.

I nodded at each of them in polite greeting, but my eyes never strayed far from them all-girl-school across the street. _I_ could be there. _I_ could still have my hair! I shot a discreet look at Inuyasha. Hell, I could still have my hair _here_! I reached up and fingered a lock of silky hair that hung at the base of my neck, and suppressed a grimace. 

Oh, yeah. Grandpa was going to **die**.

My face twisted into a mask of displeasure. Trying to suppress my angry feelings, I glanced at the tray of food Miroku had gotten for me. My stomach growled at it, and I blushed.

"Bit hungry?" Sango laughed. I nodded meekly, and she pushed me the untouched tray of food and winked.

"T-thanks," I mumbled out, looking highly embarrassed. I did NOT like the look she was giving me. Grabbing the fork, I shifted uncomfortably at the scrutinizing gazes everyone was giving me. My stomach growled, louder this time, and I gave into its protests, digging in. The food was just like any other cafeteria food; too salty, too tangy, too sweet. But I was too hungry to care.

Hey, I hadn't eaten since yesterday.

"So, Kagome," Sango started conversationally. 

I glanced at her, with my mouth still full of dry mashed potatoes. "Mmm?"

"What school did you go to before you came here?"

I swallowed, almost choking. How was I supposed to answer? I'd gone an all-girl's-school before I came here to YSG! Yeah, that'd really make a lasting impression with them. About here was where my dormant nervousness sprung to life again.

"I-I went to this school that no one's heard of... it was really, um, small..." Everyone's attention turned to me, expecting the name of the school. Great. "It was called... uh ...Shikon High." I finally blurted. I was half expecting all of them to start laughing at me, immediately knowing that I'd lied through my teeth. Something about the name 'Shikon' just gave me the creeps. Where have I heard that term before, anyway...?

Thankfully, the only dubious look I got was from Inuyasha. Or maybe that wasn't something to be thankful about. The guy made me nervous, as if he could easily see through my disguise. I gave him my most charming smile, and he frowned. Thank all the holy beings that's up there that he didn't push it, though.

"You're right, I haven't heard of it," Sango said. She was smiling at me, and my nervousness was now accompanied by a slight amount of fear. I **really** didn't like how Sango was looking at me.

Kikyou shrugged, idly examining her nails. She buffed them on her skirt, then shot me an indifferent look through her long eyelashes. "You must miss all of your friends." There was something about her tone that I really didn't like. She sounded too bored for my comfort.

"Well, yeah, of course I do. But I only moved here because it was easier for my mom to... uh... send Souta and me to the same school."

"Souta?" Kouga repeated. "Yo, I think I know him. Young kid, ain't he?"

I nodded quickly, hoping that everyone had bought my totally bogus story. Inuyasha was still staring at me with a skeptical expression, so, in return, I gave him my most innocent look. He snorted quietly and took an elegant bite from his soggy sandwich. Now that I think about it, Inuyasha is probably the only person in the world who can make eating a school sandwich look elegant. It drove me nuts then, and now... well, I'll get to that later.

"Yeah, he always got these nasty looking bruises on his face. Is he a problem child or something?"

I frowned at Kouga, but once Sango edged closer to me, my timid smile returned. I forced my attention to return to Kouga, and then I shook my head. "That's the thing. He really isn't a bad kid, but when he comes home, he's always bruised up." 

I hunched slightly into myself. "I'm scared for him, kinda. There's someone who's really taking out their anger on him, and I know he doesn't eat much when he comes here. He's always got really bad bruises everywhere, and he's always so skinny..." I let out a deep sigh and stopped talking. 

Then I blinked. Everyone was staring at me as if I'd just recited the Buddhist sutras, or some holy prediction.

"What!" I finally blurted, my hairs standing on end from the intense and almost disbelieving gazes they'd turned on me.

"Wow, you really care about your brother, don't you?" Sango asked. She had a slightly dreamy look in her eyes. I edged a little farther away from her, turning red in the cheeks. Miroku was giving me a strange look, too.

"Well," I cleared my throat, trying deepen my voice. I had the tendency to switch back to my "girl" voice, and if I wasn't careful, people were going to start noticing things. "Of course I do. I mean, he is my little brother and stuff..."

"Oh, that's so sweet!"

Blushing **again**, I quickly shoveled more food into my mouth in an excuse not to answer her. Miroku was giving me a look that could only be described as _dirty_. I had a feeling there was more between Sango and Miroku that he was willing to let on. I was going to have to ask him about that. I briefly wondered if I should tell them I liked boys... while I looked like a boy.

Oh, yeah, that'd **really** sit well with them. Homosexuality wasn't very well accepted in Japan, and even though I was a girl in reality, telling them that would definitely get me in a world of trouble. No, I had to maintain my "boyishness" so as to protect Souta. That was what I was here for, right?

At the moment, I kind of wanted to scream to the world that I was really a girl, and that I did not belong to an all-boy's school, and that I was really just here because my grandpa sent me here to protect my baby brother. Then what would I do, rip open my shirt to prove just how **womanly** I was?

Uh-huh.

"Hey, Kagome," Miroku said. He was still giving me this strange look, but it didn't exactly look spiteful, so I felt a little better. "We always hang out at this ice cream shop down the street. Wanna come with us today? We should be leaving in a bit..."

I nodded, glad to be distracted from Sango's gaze. "Sure, that sounds great!"

Well, if anything, this should be an interesting experience.

* * *

**notes:** Yes, I know, it's very much like Clara's first chapter. The truth is, I can't do much about the non-AU part until later chapters. I hinted slightly at it here, so whether or not you noticed it is up to you.

**sango youtaijiya:** unlike the play on miroku's name (miroku priest), this is a japanese name-- and not-canon, since sango never has a specified family name. clara used 'youkaitarashi' which means 'demon killer' (supposedly) in japanese. i decided to use 'youtaijiya' - 'you' from 'youkai' and 'taijiya' meaning exterminator, which is what sango really is.

**yumegaru shiritsu gakkou:** literally 'to have a dream private school'. it's sort of hinting at the title, and possibly at future events. the girls' equivalent is yumegaru shiritsu jyoshokou, which means 'to have a dream private girl's high school.' from this point on, the school Kagome, Inuyasha, Miroku, and Co. attend will be called YSG, while Sango, Kikyou, and any other female characters will attend YSJ.

_See you next chapter!_ _Azurite_


	2. Who needs classes, anyway?

**Dream A Dream  
Chapter 2:** Who Needs Classes, Anyway!  
**Revised:** 4/24/05 - No more fangirl Japanese!  
**An _Inuyasha_ Fanfiction  
By:** Azurite - azurite AT fanfiction DOT net

* * *

**READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! **

Maybe I'm alone in this boat, but have any of you read a fic, loved it to bits, but wondered what would have happened if just a little something were different? Okay, maybe not. But in my case, I have. I was reading Clara's School Daze, and wondered—what would happen if the story WASN'T AU (Alternate Universe)? 

Of course, the first thought running through my head was How would you pull _that_ off! followed by You'd need Clara's permission, of course, and then But you're already _working_ on an Inuyasha fic, stupid! But now, the idea won't get out of my head, and while I patiently wait for the next chapter of the OFFICIAL School Daze, I offer to you the School Daze—and YES, I have gotten Clara's permission. 

I highly recommend that you read "School Daze" before or while reading this. It's not necessary, but it would probably help clarify some things. However, I'm taking a lot of liberties with Clara's idea—such as replacing the names of the schools, but keeping certain facts (again, read the fic to understand) intact. Read that, and this won't seem so strange. Don't flame me on this note here, either, because here I am, explaining the whole thing. P 

**Major differences between this fic and the Inuyasha series...**  
Souta is 12-years-old and in his first year of junior high (7th grade in Japan), rather than 9-10 years old and only in 3rd grade (elementary school). This means that he's only three-and-a-half years younger than Kagome in this fic, rather than five or six years younger.  
On that note, Kagome is in 9th grade (age 15-16) at the start of the Inuyasha series. Since this is NOT an AU, and we can presume she and Inuyasha have been adventuring for some time now, she's 16 years old and has graduated to high school, or 10th grade (senior high, 1st year). But of course, the real details will be revealed as the story goes along... 

Oh, and of course, go check out Clara's website hopefully she'll update SD there first  
http/ size=1 width=100% noshade>**Author's Notes (The official ones): **

(1) I don't own Inuyasha, or the of this fic. I do own, however, the idea to take SD and make it a non-Alternate Universe.  
(2) Yes, I asked permission to use Clara's ideas, but once again, I'm changing some things around to make it true that the story is still Inuyasha—and not AU.  
(3) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review! ;;  
(4) This fic will may alternate from 1st person (Kagome's perspective) to 3rd person (S/He said). A scene change without a change of POV is indicated by ONE horizontal rule. When I switch from one perspective to another, there will be TWO horizontal rules.  
(5) Pogo-- no, this doesn't take place after Naraku was defeated and a wish was made on the jewel. I'll be getting more indepth with the whole storyline and how it ties into the "real" IY universe later on... but both Naraku and Kikyouu are integral characters to this, and since they're in the real "School Daze," they'll be in this too.  
(6) Most everyone else -- Thanks for not being nasty and accusing me of plagarism. That woulda been pretty foolish of anyone, since I DO have Clara's permission to write this, and I can only hope she's reading this. It may be a while before my plot significantly diverges from Clara's, as we're in the introductory words here... and I love Clara's style so much that it makes it difficult to change her words into something else that essentially means the same thing. But believe me, I am trying. Please keep reading! 

"like, this is speech"  
_'and these are thoughts'  
_**and these words are EMPHASIZED!**

**The final note:** Since this is supposed to be in Japan, I try to convert as much Japanese slang into English as possible. Therefore, the dialogue between "the guys" won't necessarily be grammatically correct, but it will be realistic.

* * *

"All that we see or seen  
Is but a dream within a dream."  
--Edgar Allan Poe

* * *

Let me tell you, the biggest mistake I have ever made in my entire life had to be trusting Miroku's driving skills. Months later, I would think clearly in my mind, "Well, duh." Of course Miroku would be a terrible driver-- he was a 16th century monk thrown into a 21st century world... how the hell would he know how to drive? The fact that he even knew how to turn the ignition amazed me-- that is, when I realized everything later on. But that's another story.

We were _supposed_ to be on our way to the ice cream shoppé, not throwing our lives in danger. So much for that idea.

"MIROKU PRIEST, KEEP YOUR DAMN HANDS ON THE WHEEL!" I yelled, gripping the armrests like they were my only lifeline. Even with a seatbelt on, with Miroku's wild driving...

Oh, let me tell you, was I a moron to agree with the others. 'Sure,' they told me, 'it's perfectly safe to drive with Miroku. He's a... good... driver. Sit in front, will you?' And me --intelligent as I am **most** of the time-- agreed. I know Miroku the best out of all of them, I reasoned, if I go with him, then I won't have to feel uncomfortable with sitting in a car full of people I don't know...

I. Am. Such. An. Idiot.

"REDLIGHTREDLIGHTREDLIGHT-- THAT! WAS! A! RED! LIGHT...!"

So there I was in shotgun, desperately clutching the armrests for dear life, as Miroku cut off cars left and right, shooting his way through the traffic at highly illegal speeds. Sango just calmly had her eyes closed, and Kouga looked perfectly relaxed, while I, on the other hand, was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Damn Inuyasha had to take Kikyou and Eiji in _his_ car and not have any pity on the new guy!

"SLOW DOOOOWN!" I yelled, my voice bordering on hoarse.

"Dude, Kagome, relax! I know what I'm doing!"

"LIKE HELL YOU DO! WATCH OUT!"

"Oops..." Miroku grinned sheepishly as he nearly averted a head-on collision with a tow truck. Sango was now shaking her head in resignation now, while I had bit on my lip so hard there was a dent in them.

"Where the HELL did you get your license!" I screamed at him.

My head hurt.

* * *

Inuyasha received the end of a VERY pissed off glare when Kagome entered the ice cream shoppé, her pace rigid and stiff. She practically radiated waves of annoyance at the dark-haired boy. In silent response, Inuyasha smirked devilishly, which only caused Kagome's vexed glare to become all the more dangerous. Calmly, Kagome slid next to him in the booth, folding her still-trembling hands in her lap, and closing her eyes. After taking a relaxing, meditative breath, Kagome released all her pent-up tensions.

"IF YOU EVER MAKE ME RIDE IN A CAR THAT MIROKU IS DRIVING AGAIN, I WILL PERSONALLY KICK YOUR ASS FROM HERE TO THE 16TH CENTURY!"

Of course, Kagome had no idea exactly what she was saying-- let alone how plausible it really was.

Inuyasha, the egotistical brat, had the audacity to laugh, not the least bit fazed.

"Hey!" Miroku protested. "I drive perfectly! It's all the other morons in the world that don't know how to drive!"

Kagome shot Miroku a deadpan look, causing the pigtailed boy to back away nervously. Figuring that she'd get her revenge on Miroku later, Kagome returned her deadly gaze to Inuyasha, who continued to laugh. Kagome twitched, realizing that Inuyasha's laugh, in fact, was very pleasant sounding... but that was beside the point!

"Oh, sure, try to get rid of the new gir—guy by sending him on the road with this maniac!" Kagome grumbled, grabbing the menu. She panted a moment, wondering if anyone had noticed her near slip-up.

_'I'm actually kind of surprised that no one's noticed anything up till now... I didn't think I was **that** good of an actress.'_ Kagome thought to herself.

"I think I left my stomach back at school..." she murmured aloud.

"You get used to it," Sango sighed, shaking her head. Kagome shot her the same flat look Inuyasha and Miroku were lucky enough to receive. Sango shrugged and slid next to Kikyou across from them, and Kouga sat beside Kagome. Miroku was smart enough to sit as far away as possible from the enraged Higurashi 'boy,' instead grabbing a chair and pulling it up to the end of the table.

"Just for subjecting to me to the sheer and utter terror of having to sit in the car YOU drove, you're paying for my food," Kagome told Miroku primly, giving him a look that promised much pain if he didn't comply. Miroku nodded meekly.

Inuyasha grinned at Kagome, who noted both Kikyou and Sango looked at her with surprise written plainly on their faces. Kagome wondered what they were so shocked about, mentally noting that she'd have to ask them about it later.

"You have no money, do you?" Inuyasha asked.

"Not a single yen," Kagome smirked proudly.

Inuyasha chuckled again, then shook his head. Kagome pinned him with a dirty look and opened the menu, wondering why she was going to eat again right after she'd eaten the stinky cafeteria food. But then, she was struck with a brilliant idea.

"You are going to pay for our food, Miroku." she stated, smiling evilly as Miroku nodded quickly. At the moment, Miroku was pretty terrified of his new classmate, judging from the evil glares she'd been shooting at him ever since they arrived.

"Good!" All smiles again, Kagome waved for the waitress to come take her order. Miroku was staring at his classmate with an increasing sense of dread, while the others were grinning ever-so-slightly.

"Hi, Miss, me and my friends would like two of everything on this menu." Kagome did her best to maintain a serious expression on her face.

"TWO!" the waitress and Miroku cried. The other people at Kagome's table laughed hysterically, and Miroku slumped forward, eyes wide.

"Kaaaaagooomeee!" Miroku pleaded, voice pleading and piteous. "Come ON! There's no way I can afford all that! Do you want me to be working here every day of my life!"

"Well, after the hell you put me through, yes. Yes, I would."

Miroku's eyes widened more and he pouted, looking utterly ridiculous. "Come on, it's not like I actually put your life in danger! ...Well, not TOO much danger, that is... but it's not like you actually got hurt!"

Kagome sighed, pressing her lips together, and relented. As much as she hated to admit, he was right.

"Okay, we'll only take as much as he—" she pointed to Miroku, "—can afford."

Miroku blanched. "I... uh... only have..."

"—Or I'll beat him up," Sango finished for Kagome, grinning maliciously.

"...enough money to buy half the menu..." Miroku finished with a swallow.

The waitress gave everyone all a strange and bemused looks, then shook her head and walked away, not even bothering to write down the phenomenally large order. Those present doubted she could have forgotten it if she wanted to, anyway. As the waitress walked away, Eiji returned to the table, a curious expression on his face. Obviously, he'd heard the ruckus Kagome and Miroku had made while they ordered their food, and now he hoped for an explanation. Unlike everyone else, he already bought and paid for his food; he was holding a tray of fries and a milkshake.

"Hey, guys...?" Kagome almost laughed at Eiji's tone of voice. He sounded so confused... "Why is Priest all pale and stuff?"

"Kagome conned him into buying half the menu," Kouga informed him, and Eiji looked remorsefully down at his tray.

"Why couldn't you have done that earlier, huh Kagome?" he sighed resignedly, then strode over to a table of giggling schoolgirls squished together at a random table.

"Here, I bought these for you." He gave them a charming smile, causing the girls to turn cherry red and giggle more. Eiji moved to sit at the booth with everyone else, scooting beside Sango.

"There's only one problem," Kikyou said in a monotonous voice, holding up her perfectly manicured right index finger. "How are we going to eat all this food?" She raised a neatly-plucked eyebrow at Kagome, whom she regarded with a measure of disdain.

"Ever the voice of reason," Kouga snorted.

Kagome stared at the speckles on the table a moment, finally tossing Kikyou an indifferent look.

"Who cares about how we're going to eat all this? Hell, we can just get whatever's left to-go if we want to. The important part is, Miroku's paying for it." She wasn't sure if she was really coming off as a guy properly, but no one seemed the least bit shocked by Kagome's language or attitude, so everything must have been going well.

"Speaking of which..." Eiji waved his hand in front of Miroku's face, snapped his fingers in front of his eyes, then shook his head. "Eh, he's in shock."

Kouga examined the laminated, three-page menu, and grinned at Kagome.

"Yeah, I think I would be too..."

After a few moments, the waitress came back, a tray on each hand, precariously balancing an assortment of meals on each. Once she was done placing the first two on the table, she immediately rushed back to the counter again-- and she repeated this four times, until everything that Kagome had so zealously ordered was piled all over the table.

Miroku stared at the monstrous amount of edibles in horror, then turned a very vengeful glare in Kagome's direction. In return, she gave him a sugary-sweet smile, which surely unnerved the boy, as he hadn't been expecting something like that from someone he thought was a _boy_.

"I am so going to kill you."

* * *

I laughed easily. "Hey, I'll pay you back, okay? Well, at least partially..."

Miroku slumped glumly into himself, eyes still on the food. "You'd better."

Sango gave me one of those looks she had been giving me frequently, and I started to get nervous again. There was something about her that made me feel uncomfortable, as if she knew or suspected something. I hid behind the food once again, grabbing a fork and shoveling some random piece of food into my mouth. It was surprisingly delicious. After swallowing the tasty morsel, I snuck a glance at my pissed-off friend. He was staring at the food with a now determined expression on his face, then grabbed my fork.

"Hey!" I watched in surprise as he shoved the piece of food that I was just about to eat in his own mouth. "I was just about to eat that!"

He glared at me for a moment, then swallowed. "If I have to pay for this whole mess of food, I'm going to damn well enjoy it."

Sango shook her head, glancing at Inuyasha and Eiji who were both currently attacking the food with very male-like vigor. Kouga was just sitting there, examining each particle of food with sparkling eyes. Kikyou, on the other hand, was eating gracefully.

"You know," Sango said, glancing at me with sparkling eyes, "we're going to have the worst stomachaches later..." I just grinned in response.

As it turns out, we ended up taking pity on Miroku. Therefore, Sango, Eiji, and Kouga helped pay for the eye-popping bill. I promised I'd pay them all back marginally, but surprisingly, they didn't ask Kikyou or Inuyasha to help pay.

I had enough sense not to ask.

I shifted my weight from foot to foot as we walked back to the cars. Needless to say, I had refused to let the others even _think_ about letting me in the same car as Miroku again. Miroku was taking this 'little practical joke' I played on him with stride, but I didn't quite like the looks he was giving me while I lugged the leftovers in their to-go bags back to Inuyasha's car. Miroku's glances weren't, per se, dirty, but they did still have that vengeful glint in them that promised something unpleasant. However, since Miroku was a nice and forgiving guy, and since I had gained a new respect from the others in the group, I replaced Kikyou in Inuyasha's car.

Kikyou did not appreciate this.

"What makes you think I want to stay in that car with this perverted maniac! I mean, Kagome's the new guy, and I've known you all so much longer than he has... why does he get all the luxuries?"

I ended up running across this argument several times throughout my entire stay at YSG. Privately, I think it was just an excuse for her to hate me.

"Please, Kikyou," Inuyasha rolled his eyes, "that's part of the reason why we're sticking you in Miroku's car. You've been around long enough to be able to handle his crazy driving."

"But I..." Kikyou was silenced by a dark look coming from Inuyasha's direction, and she slouched over slightly. "All right, all right, I'll go in his stinkin' car..."

I shot a curious glance at Inuyasha, then shrugged and walked over to his vehicle. By some odd chance, I ended up getting the front seat before Eiji did.

I realized something this day too. It wasn't quite new knowledge, but I never fully acknowledged how much it applied to me until I opened my big mouth.

My problem was that I talked too much. And when I talked too much, it was guaranteed I would stick my foot in my mouth as far as it could go. I had the opportunity to practice this feature on the way back to school.

"What's the story behind you and Kikyou?" I asked ever-so-innocently as I buckled my seatbelt, not long after we'd gotten on the road. guess the question surprised him, because he accidentally jerked the wheel and nearly swerved off the road. Eiji went sprawling across the back seat, bumping his head on the back of my chair.

"Ow! Inuyasha, do that again and I'll... I'll... do something unpleasant to you!"

"You should have put on your seatbelt then, dumbass. Watch the food," was Inuyasha's growling response. For a few moments, the only noise in the car was Eiji adjusting himself then clicking in his seatbelt. Then he sighed. "Why do you want to know? Are you interested in her?"

WHAT! WHATWHATWHAAAT! Unable to voice my thoughts to him, I snorted instead. "What, her? The girl hates me. And even if she didn't, she's not my type." She's not a boy.

Inuyasha sighed softly, then shrugged. "There wasn't really anything that happened between us. I've known her for forever, and we decided to try the date scene a couple months ago. That didn't exactly work out, so we went back to being just friends. That's all."

He was lying to me. What did I expect, though? Him flat out telling me all his life problems as if I was an old friend when we've only known each other for less than a day?

The silence in the car was far from comfortable the rest of the trip.

* * *

When we got back to the school, I immediately decided it was time to seek out my brother and have the chat that I'd put off for too long. After all, my little brother was the reason why I was even going to this school... even if he was avoiding me for some odd reason...

I found him after combing the grounds for nearly half an hour. What I saw shocked me.

"Please, please don't, Takeno, I need that money..."

"Tsk, tsk, Souta... are we speaking back to our elders? You know what that means..."

Souta was surrounded by a group of boys that seemed to be a year or so older than he was. They all looked menacing, and one was holding a belt as if it were a weapon. After a moment of belated horror, I realized that was exactly what they were going to use it for.

The larger boy brought the belt down forcefully against my brother's back, and I opened my mouth in silent empathy when I heard him scream. Tears rose to my eyes when I heard the metal buckle slap powerfully against his back. This hadn't been the first time the boys had hit him in that spot, according to the stain of blood on his shirt.

Shocked to the point where all the blood had drained from my face, I rushed over to the group of kids. The surprise was quickly wearing down to homicidal urges, as I grabbed the kid who had hit my brother with his belt. Lifting him up so that he was eye level with me, I sneered in a way that even made my brother gasp in surprise.

"What the hell do you think you're doing to my brother!" I roared. The younger boy yelped in surprise, then started to tremble badly. Disgusted, horrified, and down right PISSED, I threw the quivering mess down against one of the other boys. They both collapsed to the ground, then scrambled to their feet as quick as they could, running as if hell's hounds were at their heels. Considering I was about to snarl and chew those boys out, it wouldn't have been too far a description for my state back then. The other boys took their cues and stumbled away too, running for their lives and glancing back in shock and terror.

I fell to my knees next to Souta, and gathered him in my arms, the anger slowly draining away from my tense form. Souta trembled against me, body lax. After a few moments of me gently rocking him as Mama would have, he started to cry, first lightly, then powerful sobs that wracked his bruised frame.

When he finally started to calm down, I carefully picked him up. Blood stained my crisp shirt, but the only thing that horrified me about that was that it was my brother's. "Come on, Souta. Let's get you to the nurse."

* * *

When I finally got back to the dorms, it was already past eleven-- not good, considering I had classes starting the next day. However, the knowledge that my brother was going to be okay and that he was going to be relocated to a different wing of the school dorms until he healed --that was enough to make forget my fatigue a bit. Even though I was nearly falling over from exhaustion and post-traumatic shock-- or something.

When I finally entered the dorm room, though, the sight that greeted me completely threw me off whack from my already-unbalanced day.

My room was a mess.

Blinking a few times, I picked my way around a pile of clothing, and looked around to find the source of the catastrophe. All I found was posters of many different types of bands littering my once immaculate walls, clothes strewn everywhere (including MY bed), and a sleeping boy lying in the middle of his bed with a pair of headphones over his ears. I looked at him tiredly.

Oh, this was good.

Sitting carefully on my bed after tossing his clothes from it, I picked up the folder that Miroku had been carrying around when he was giving me the short tour. The very first thing on the small pile of papers was my classes. I sighed, and shuffled through a couple ads and various other papers I wouldn't need, then looked back at my classes. Most of my classes were advanced, since my old school had been just as demanding as this one. My only problem area was math. As it was, I would be taking Algebra 2, instead of Trigonometry or Calculus.

I sighed and placed my papers to the side, resting my face on the palm of my hand and looking out the window. I wasn't entirely afraid for my classes, anyway. I mean, how would this get me into a good university, anyway?

'Young Miss Kagome Higurashi spent most of her life attending an all-girls' school until she reached senior high, at which point she transferred to Yumegaru Shiritsu Gakkou in order to protect her baby brother. As high-ranking as this school may be, it is in fact, an all-boys' school.'

Yeah, that'd really get me into a good university.

I closed my eyes and started to doze off, while I ignored the now sleeping slob who I had presumed was Hojo.

School wasn't the only problem that had presented itself in these past hours. Now I had to worry even more about my brother. I had always known that someone had been beating him, but I didn't know to what extent. And it made me wonder exactly **why** they were beating him. What happened? And...

Suddenly, I shot up to a sitting position, wide awake. I reached over and grabbed my folder, then thumbed through the papers frantically until I found my classes.

I had P.E.!

Groaning, I lay back down and grabbed my pillow, pulling it over my face in hopes of smothering myself.

_'I am so very, very screwed, I am so very, very screwed...'_ Or so my mantra went, as I fell into a deeper, yet highly troubled sleep.

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, it was to my insane roommate throwing God-knows-what at my sleeping form. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, then glared dangerously at the brunette boy sitting on his own bed.

"G'morning! I'm Hojo Hajemu. You must be Kagome," Hojo said, then grinned brightly. I groaned my affirmative answer. How on earth could anybody be so awake at this time of the day? "Sorry, but I didn't want you to sleep through your first classes. It gives a bad impression."

I stared at him blankly for a moment, then swung myself out of bed, frantically. "Oh, no! Classes!" I grabbed my bag and quickly drug it to the bathroom, already starting to unbutton my shirt with one hand. "I still need to take a shower!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Relax, Kagome." He waved his hands at my mad dash towards the bathroom. I didn't turn to him, since my shirt was already halfway unbuttoned, and my... well, womanly attributes were halfway exposed. They were bound, of course, but they were pretty damn obvious. "We start classes at eight, and it's only seven. You have an hour to get ready."

I threw a dry look at Hojo, carefully keeping my front away from his view. My ears were bright red. "Well, THANKS!" I stormed into the bathroom anyway, shutting the door and locking it behind me. Might as well get ready now, anyway... I sighed and pulled off my shirt the rest of the way, reaching over to the faucet to turn it on as hot as it could go. A nice, long, hot shower might chase away all my stresses. I hoped.

"You're welcome!" he shouted back through the door, sounding pleased. I blinked several times. Was this guy for real?

After I finished my relaxing shower and drying myself off completely, I pulled on the black uniform the school had provided me. It was a size too large for me, since boys my age generally weren't as small as me, but that was actually perfect. Baggy clothes meant I could hide my figure better.

I walked out of the bathroom, towel drying my still damp hair, then stopped in mid step. There was Miroku, sitting on my bed and glaring daggers at Hojo. Hojo obliviously got ready for classes, completely unaware of the evil glances Miroku kept shooting at him.

"Hey, Kagome!" Miroku called, holding up my folder when he finally noticed I was there. His spiteful look was replaced by a more friendly one. "I came here to show you to your classes, just in case. Headmaster Kaede threatened me with a detention when I told her I forgot to show you which class was which and just showed you around the campus..." I blinked incomprehensibly for a few moments, draping my towel around my shoulders. Miroku grinned at me, then dropped the folder on his lap and pulled out my classes, then pulled out his classes from out of no where. "Hey, we have Algebra and Advanced art together... I think you have P.E. with Inuyasha and Eiji. Cool. Anyway, are you going to the festival tomorrow?"

"What festival?" was my oh-so-intelligent answer.

"Hey, did you even look at these ads?" Miroku opened my folder again, then pulled out a neon green paper. He handed it over to me.

"'Welcoming Festival'?" I read. "April 2nd... collaborated festival between the two Yumegaru Schools..." I stopped reading for a moment, then glanced at Miroku. "Hey, we do all this stuff with the all-girls' school... why don't they just come together and become one co-ed school?"

Miroku shrugged. "They've been talking about it, but most of the students have argued against it, surprisingly. I guess old habits die hard." He was glaring at something behind me, and I blinked and turned around, almost running into Hojo.

"Ack..."

Hojo plucked the paper out of my hand and looked over it quickly. "Oh, that's good. I was wondering when they would have this year's festival. Maybe I'll finally work up enough courage to ask Sango-san to join me, this year..."

The temperature of the room dropped several degrees from Miroku's icy glare.

Oh. That's why Miroku hated Hojo so much... I smirked lightly to myself. How cute.

Still giving Hojo a look that could freeze fire, Miroku reached over and grabbed me by the wrist. With his other hand, he snatched the paper from the other boy's hand, then started to drag me out of the room --towards what I had a feeling was my first class.

"Of all the nerve," Miroku started what promised to be a long rant. "How dare he even think about asking Sango to the school festival! I ought to... to..." He stopped, obviously trying to think of something horrendously bad to do to Hojo. But since he stopped walking while he was dragging me by the wrist, I rammed into his back rather forcefully.

The dummy didn't even notice, he was so engrossed with thinking up evil things to do to Hojo. Worse, he didn't let go of my arm. And in his anger, his grip was getting tighter and tighter...

"Hey, Miroku...?"

"...I'm going to hurt him, that's what I'm going to do!" At this proud proclamation, he continued stomping towards his destination, still gripping my wrist hard enough to most likely leave a bruise. I grit my teeth together. "What makes him think that Sango would want to go out with the likes of him!"

"...Miroku..."

"She's way too good for him! I swear, the guy is such a moron! ...Hell, she's way too good for me..."

"MIROKU PRIEST, STOP WALKING THIS INSTANT!" I exclaimed loudly.

Shocked from sudden exclamation and surprised from his own ranting, he finally did stop, giving me a perplexed look. Taking a deep breath, I favored him with a dirty look.

"As much as I'd love to hear your angry rant about your love-life with Sango, Miroku..." I carefully pried my wrist from his death-grip. "...I don't have my books."

"Oh. Oops!"

Muttering something about stupid love-sick school boys, I turned the tables, grabbing my guide by his wrist and stomping back to my dorm.

By the time I finally got to my first class, I had no more time to spare. Slumping into one of the desks farthest from the board, I opened my Japanese history book and positioned it in front of my face so I could hide behind it. Why? I'm not entirely sure. I just liked the thought of having this odd type of protection around me.

Granted, this protection didn't last very long, especially when a certain boy with long black hair knocked it over.

"My mistake," Inuyasha said with feigned innocence. "Sorry, didn't see that there!" He took the seat next to me, and I shot him a dirty glare over the large book, which rested on the bridge of my nose. He just grinned in response. "Lemme see your class list."

Still not taking the book from my nose, I opened the folder with all my school junk in it, then handed him the small slip of paper that had all my classes on it. He looked it over. "Hey. We have P.E., Physics, Psych, and this class together..."

I glanced at him again, then grabbed my book and hid my face from him completely. Great. We had P.E. together. I sighed deeply and prayed that my book would swallow me whole. That means that... that...

Well, if anything happened, then he would be the first to know just how much I was **not** a boy.

I could feel him giving my neck an odd look (since that was the closest thing to my face he could see), but I was saved from having to comment by the sharp ring of the late bell. I dropped my book just in time to see an old midget walk in. This guy was SHORT. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. He was shorter than Souta, and looked as if he barely made it past two feet tall. The minute man walked over to a desk that was taller than him, walked behind it, then pushed a stool (that was once again taller than him), in the front of the room. With one agile leap, he jumped on top of the stool and gave everyone a dry look.

"My name is Professor Myouga. If anyone makes one comment about my height, bad OR good, it's an automatic detention." About twenty mouths shut at this. "I will be your teacher in Japanese History. This is not an easy course, and it does indeed go by very quickly." He leapt off the stool gracefully, then bounced over to his desk and hopped on the chair. Standing on a stack of books that were conveniently placed on the cushion, he reached over and grabbed a stack of papers.

The he did the most amusing thing I'd have seen in awhile.

Passing out the papers was tedious as it is when you're normal height, but when you just reach the two-feet-tall line, it's nearly impossible. Granted, you don't have to worry about dodging desks, chairs, and people when you're midget-sized, since you can just go under them, but there's always the problem of getting the paper on the desk. I suppose since Professor Myouga had apparently been teaching for so long, he had devised a full proof way to solve this little problem.

His way was to jump high enough, then toss the paper on the desk.

I found myself hiding against my book again, this time to cover the giggles I knew I wouldn't be able to hold back. Inuyasha had a violent fake coughing attack, while the other students just flat out laughed. Professor Myouga ignored the laughter, however, which led me to once again believe he had been teaching here for a long time. He seemed to respond to the students chuckling at him as an everyday occurrence.

I thought this over a couple times, then just shook my head.

Professor Myouga once again returned to his stool, then waited patiently until we stopped laughing. After the class settled down, he favored each and every one of us with deadpan looks. "What I just handed out to you is a syllabus of what we're covering throughout the entire school year. Lose that, and, well... good luck passing the course. I will **not** give out additional copies. Also on the syllabus is how I grade, what materials you need for this class, and the dates for every test I will be giving. The reason why I have included all the tests and dates is so that you kids won't use the excuse of me not telling you about the test to try and skip it. If you will open your packet to page eight..."

About there is where I tuned him out.

* * *

My next class ended up being P.E., so I walked with Inuyasha to the gym. That was perfectly fine, however, since I knew that if I had attempted walking there on my own, I would have gotten lost faster than it would take me to get there. As we walked there, I dragged each foot against the ground, in hopes of prolonging the journey from class to class.

It didn't take Inuyasha long to notice my slow pace.

"Hey, what gives, Kagome?" He frowned, an accusatory tone filtering into his voice. "I thought you liked sports. I mean, you did say you've been playing baseball since you could walk..."

Ah. Miroku had been buttering Inuyasha up to get me on the team. I frowned back at him, running my fingers through my hair on instinct. "It's not that... it's just that I... well..." I frowned at the gym doors in front of me. Oh well, might as well get it over with. Getting a set look on my face, I walked determinedly through the door, shifting the small bundle of clothes in my arms. At least they offered sweats in this program. I had decidedly feminine legs for obvious reasons, and although I doubt that would have given away my horrid secret, I'd have rather gone without the crude teasing I knew I would be subjected to if I wore shorts.

Showering, on the other hand...

The gym was a relatively large room, at least large enough to fit two full sized basketball courts, complete with several basketball hoops. Surprisingly, on the wall farthest to us was a long, neat row of targets. Inuyasha and I walked up to a group of the students who were already dressed, then blinked at them.

"Hey, Riiko, what's all these targets for?"

A short boy with a shock of red hair blinked up at Inuyasha in surprise. "Uh.. uh.. Upperclassman I-Inuyasha, th-they're for ar-archery..." The poor kid sounded absolutely horrified, and I glanced back at Inuyasha. He was wearing a faintly annoyed expression on his face. "S-sorry, Upperclassman Inuyasha!" The kid bowed repeatedly, then hurried off to another group of kids. I could swear I heard him say "He talked to meee!" Inuyasha shrugged helplessly at my slightly bemused look.

"Well, it is an all-boys' school..."

For a moment, I didn't completely comprehend what he meant. Until I actually thought about it. My eyes widened, and I nodded slowly. "Oh." That was all I could think of to say.

I mean, I had nothing against the gender preference of the boys that went here, since a good friend of mine was bisexual, but it did kind of... surprise me. Not Riiko's purported sexual preference, but how Inuyasha was taking it. He seemed only slightly annoyed at the fact that Riiko had a crush on him. There were no disgusted looks, no sneers, no fury... just the same annoyance he got on his face when Kikyou tried to get "too close" to him. My opinion of him rose higher. Actually, it sky-rocketed. There was just something about an open-minded guy that I adored.

I decided to open my big mouth, anyway. "Um, are you...?"

"No." He offered me a dry look. "I just don't care what swings other people's boats, but I prefer girls, myself." He blinked at me. "And you...?" There was an odd expression on his face-- a quirking of his lips and an eyebrow raised at a particular angle. It caught me just a bit off-guard, but I answered anyway.

"Straight." I wasn't about to go into a detailed answer like he had. After all, I did --er, **do**-- like boys, and at the moment, I was a "boy." I grinned crookedly at him. "That's cool, though."

He didn't have enough time to reply back, as a female teacher had walked into the room. She glanced at all the students carefully, then reached Inuyasha and myself and sighed loudly. The teacher pointed over her shoulder at what I presumed were the dressing rooms.

I looked down at my body. Oops. I was still wearing my school uniform.

When Inuyasha and I got to the locker room, I headed straight for one of the dressing stalls. Although I knew Inuyasha was giving me an odd look because of this, I didn't care. As long as he didn't ask any awkward questions. I sighed and clicked the lock in place. I made it a point to change quickly before I left the privacy of the stall.

"Hey Inuyasha, are..." I choked on the rest of the sentence. There were some things about guys that I really liked. One: personalities. Two: smiles. But one of the main things I liked about guys were their backs. Backs were nice. Especially toned, just-muscular-enough backs like the one I was drooling over. Inuyasha had his front facing away from me and was currently pulling off his shirt, revealing his tantalizing back with lovely obviousness. I wouldn't mind running my fingers down that back, any day...

Lord almighty, I squeaked.

Turning bright red at my chain of thoughts, I quickly ducked back into the stall I had dressed in.

_'Okay, girl, you've got to get a grip on yourself. You're a boy right now, remember? Keep your damn cool!'_ I rubbed my cheeks until they returned to their natural color, then I walked back out, with a slightly embarrassed look on my face. Luckily, Inuyasha hadn't seen me, and apparently hadn't heard my unfinished sentence or squeak. "U-uh, hey, are you done?"

The black haired boy turned around, then grinned down at me and nodded. Unexpectedly, my heart skipped a beat.

Oh, my. What I had here was a situation.

* * *

P.E. was fun. That's the only way I'll ever be willing to describe it. I had always been an athletic girl, so of course, my favorite period was P.E. It was probably going to be even more fun since I was now pretending to be a boy. Less limitations, more pushing and shoving --and fun! Not only that, but now the boys wouldn't treat me as if I were made of glass.

We did archery that day. I had never done archery before, let alone hold a bow and arrow... or at least, that's what I thought back then.

"Beginners, please raise your hands," Miss Okiku ordered. I, along with half the class, raised my hand. Inuyasha's hands remained firmly on his bow that the teacher had passed to each student earlier. I figured he'd had some experience with archery before.

"Right, there's quite a bit of you this time. Please, move to the left, away from the ones who have already been introduced to the bow and arrow. Archery is not a simple sport, as you will soon grow to realize," Miss Okiku explained.

"It requires lithe strength, a sharp eye, and sheer flexibility. You must be able to see the target from many feet away, while at the same time shoot it as fast as you can, in case it may be a moving target." Miss Okiku walked over to me and handed me two arrows.

"Granted, These arrows are not sharp enough to puncture the skin, but please do not shoot them at each other, or expect a Saturday detention. Kagome, will you please attempt to shoot the target?"

_'...Attempt to?'_ I swallowed hard.

I glanced at the teacher for a long moment, slightly confused. She smiled and nodded encouragingly, and I shrugged. Miss Okiku quickly showed me how to hold and position the arrow, then watched me expectantly.

I pulled my arrow back and let it fly.

TWOCK!

Several people in the crowd murmured in surprise. The arrow had hit smack-dab in the center of the bulls-eye on my target. The teacher gasped, and I got nervous. They wouldn't think I was lying to them, would they? I gave Miss Okiku a weak smile.

"Beginner's luck?"

"It must be, but I have to say, I've never seen a beginner with so much luck before. Please, shoot the other arrow."

I glanced back at the target, pulled back the arrow, then once again let it fly.

SCCRIIIK! TWOCK!

This time, there were startled gasps of surprise. Nervously, I glanced at the teacher. She actually looked pale. I started to sweat slightly at the back of my neck and the palms of my hands. My eyes found their way back to my target.

The arrow I had just let fly had split my first arrow in half, right down the center.

"The arrows s-shouldn't be able to do that..." Miss Okiku stuttered. "Please, K-Kagome, shoot again. This time, aim for the circle outside of the bulls-eye, at the top." She handed me another arrow.

_'Ready... Aim...' _

TWOCK!

The arrow embedded itself directly above the other arrows, right where Miss Okiku wanted.

I was standing at **least** fifteen meters away from my target. Not to mention it was the very first time I had ever even held a bow and arrow in my life... right? I was just as shocked as she was, staring at my own hands as if they were alien to me. I knew there was such a thing as innate talent, but...

Doubtful they would believe that I'd never held a bow before, though...

I didn't get to explain that little fact to Miss Okiku that day, though. As soon as my third arrow had hit its mark, a droning lady's voice spoke over the intercom.

"Kagome Higurashi, will you please come to the infirmary immediately? You are excused from the rest of your classes for the day. Once again, urgent, Kagome Higurashi to the infirmary..."

Dropping the bow, I grinned sheepishly at the teacher, then shrugged at Inuyasha's doubly-shocked glance.

"Sorry, Miss Okiku, but I really haven't ever held a bow an arrow before. I don't know why this came to me so easily. Maybe it's just a talent?" I shrugged, then shot an easy grin at the still surprised Inuyasha.

"Later, Inu." With that, I jogged back to the dressing rooms.

Them calling me like so to the infirmary only meant one thing. There was something wrong with Souta.

That thought alone made me terrified.

* * *

**Notes:** yeah, I had to revise a lot of this (and chapter 1). The changes weren't all that mind-bending-- some spelling errors, some old "school daze" references left in, and a few sengoku jidai references added. D Hopefully you noticed them compared to the old version, or you're just enjoying yourself now.

_See you next chapter! __Azurite_


	3. What we have here is a SITuation

**Dream A Dream  
Chapter 3:** What We Have Here Is A SITuation  
**Revised:** 4/21/05 - No more fangirl Japanese... and other things!   
**An _Inuyasha_ Fanfiction  
By:** Azurite - azurite AT fanfiction DOT net

* * *

**READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS! **

This is a doujinfic based off of Clara's "School Daze" fanfic. "What is a doujinfic," you ask? Well, it's a fic based off another fic, which is, in turn, based off a show (Inuyasha). What makes my fic different from Clara's is that mine is NOT an AU-- hers is. How's that going to work? Well read on! 

**Major differences between this fic and the Inuyasha series...**  
Souta is 12-years-old and in his first year of junior high (7th grade in Japan), rather than 9-10 years old and only in 3rd grade (elementary school). This means that he's only three-and-a-half years younger than Kagome in this fic, rather than five or six years younger.  
On that note, Kagome is in 9th grade (age 15-16) at the start of the Inuyasha series. Since this is NOT an AU, and we can presume she and Inuyasha have been adventuring for some time now, she's 16 years old and has graduated to high school, or 10th grade (senior high, 1st year). But of course, the real details will be revealed as the story goes along... 

**Major differences between this fic and "School Daze" (aside from the fact that DaD is NOT an AU)  
** I spell 'Kikyou' instead of 'Kikyo,' and have changed Sango's "last name" from Youkaitarashi into Youtaijiya.  
I changed the school name from 'St. Bernard's Special School' into 'Yumegaru Shiritsu' Gakkou (for the boys-only school) and Jyoshoku (for the girls-only school). They are abbreviated YSG and YSJ. 

Oh, and of course, go check out Clara's website hopefully she'll update SD there first  
http/ size=1 width=100% noshade>**Author's Notes (The official ones): **

(1) I don't own Inuyasha, or the of this fic. I do own, however, the idea to take SD and make it a non-Alternate Universe.  
(2) Yes, I asked permission to use Clara's ideas, but once again, I'm changing some things around to make it true that the story is still Inuyasha—and not AU.  
(3) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review! ;;  
(4) This fic will may alternate from 1st person (Kagome's perspective) to 3rd person (S/He said). A scene change without a change of POV is indicated by ONE horizontal rule. When I switch from one perspective to another, there will be TWO horizontal rules.  
(5) Fallon-- thanks for the review! I don't know how often I'm planning on updating, since I tend to jump from fandom to fandom (such is my curse). I know Clara's up to chapter 16 on SD, but I can't say how often she updates or plans on updating, since I'm not her. ; Clara, if you're reading this, you have at least two fans that want you to write more soon! 3 3 

"like, this is speech"  
_'and these are thoughts'  
_**and these words are EMPHASIZED!**

* * *

"All that we see or seen  
Is but a dream within a dream."  
--Edgar Allan Poe

* * *

"Mr. Kagome Higurashi, we have called you to the infirmary for a reason." The dean, the authority directly under Headmaster Kaede, paced about the small infirmary waiting room, with his hands clasped tightly behind his back. The way he kept striding back and forth, two long strides quickly covering the length of the room --over and over again-- I was starting to get more than a little nauseous, but worry for my brother was what kept me riveted to my chair. 

Finally the dean stopped pacing, stopped right in front of me, and looked me dead-on in the eye. I gulped. 

"Your brother has several contusions and terrible welts running down his back. Our nurse also noticed several old scars on his torso." The dean looked towards the nurse, who was biting her lip. 

The dean kneeled in front of my chair, his hands on his knees as he looked at me in the eye as if I were some sort of child. 

"Answer me truthfully," the man took a deep breath, swallowing, "Do... your parents abuse you?" 

I blanched.

_**'What** did he just ask me?' _

"I-I don't just mean physical abuse, mind you... there are other types of abuse..." The dean started to stutter, rising onto his feet and starting to pace once more, every few seconds glancing at me. I think I was too much in shock to really think outside of that, my observations and my thoughts running rampant.

The temptation was there to angrily rise to my feet and demand to know what the hell was going on inside that pea-brained head of the dean's. Surprisingly, though, I kept my cool and remained seated. Rational thought told me that the dean was only looking out for Souta's welfare -the same as I was- and that until they realized that not ALL of their students were picture-perfect, they'd be deluded into placing blame for their problems elsewhere.

Still, it was fiddle-faddle-- Grandpa and Mama would **never**, not in five hundred years hurt either me or Souta.

"No, my mom and grandpa don't abuse us." I rose to my feet and gave the man a level look (or as best a 'level look' as I could manage, considering I was a good foot and a half shorter than him).

"I have noticed the other kids at this school hitting him, though..." I trailed off purposely, but didn't let my gaze wander. I wanted this man to know that I was serious. What I had seen was shocking, and horrifying, to say the least.

"Well, now, you have to understand that behavior like that is just child's play!" the dean muttered, pulling at his collar nervously. I rolled my eyes. He wasn't looking out for anyone but his reputation-- or more accurately, the school's reputation.

The dean paced faster now. I knew just what was running through his head at the moment as he anxiously looked at me.

_'This could become a legal dispute-- the family might sue us!'_

"Look, mister," I said, stepping forward and stopping the dean mid-pace, "The fact is, it's not just child's play anymore. You yourself questioned the amount of injuries my brother has, and now you're saying it's child's play!"

I was barely restraining the anger that threatened to boil over. I was clenching my hands together so tightly I could see my knuckles turning an unhealthy shade of white. But I didn't care-- it wasn't the fact that **I'd** thrown away so much to get here, to protect Souta-- it was the fact that I'd had to do it in the first place. If only this school was safe...!

I slumped back into the chair again, gripping the armrests as tightly as I could-- much like I had when Miroku had "driven" me to the ice cream shoppé. Only this time, I wasn't terrified for my life. I was terrified for my brother's.

"If this continues, then it won't be bruises anymore. It'll be broken bones. And after broken bones, who knows what's going to happen? Part of the reason why I came this school was for its well-known prestige, but the main reason was because of my brother."

Actually, the **only** reason I'd come to this school was because of Souta. It had just been a bonus that the Yumegaru Shiritsu school was considered very prestigious, an institute of higher learning. Private schools were hard to get into, and my family could barely afford sending Souta here as it was... but Father had had such an attachment to the place, and...

There was something else. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something else about YSG that was slipping my mind. But it was important, and it, like Souta, was the reason why I was there.

I stood up slowly, brushing my dark bangs from my brow.

"I don't want to get into the legal matters, but how do you think this would go over if these matters were made public? People will believe this school's unsafe to go to, and not only stop sending their kids here, but parents of current students would pull them out as well!" I paused to take a deep breath. I couldn't be around my brother all the time, and if the school didn't do something to protect Souta, there wouldn't be any other choice but to take it to the media.

"Sir, I don't want this to become a big deal, but if my brother continues to get these beatings, then I will have no choice but to bring this matter up to the police."

The man's face turned pallid, and he stopped pacing again, this time so he could sink into a chair across from me. He dropped his head in his hands, almost looking broken. He probably loved this school as much as Father had...

He let out a deep sigh and returned his gaze to my face.

"I understand why you are so angry about this." He smiled weakly. "I even understand why your brother didn't come to us about this problem." He sighed, then ran his fingers through his thinning hair.

"I've been the dean of this school for several years now, and we have come across matters like this before, I'm sorry to say. Sometimes, even more severe." He nodded to me slightly.

"At the next board meeting, I will bring up this topic. You may visit your brother now."

That was an excuse if I had ever heard one. I told myself then that he had better live up to his word, or I'd stay true to mine-- and make the matter public. To the police, to the media-- whoever it took. Nobody deserved to feel unsafe in their own school!

I bowed slightly to the tired-looking man, then exited the waiting room, stepping into a slightly larger one. My brother was lying, face-up, on the only bed in the room, eyes closed and seemingly asleep. The sheets were drawn all the way to his neck, protecting his small frame from the world.

Carefully, I shut the door behind me, then walked to my brother's side. Right as the door clicked into place, my brother's eyes opened.

"K-Kagome?" he asked, voice riddled with sleep. I dragged a stool up beside his bed, plopping down next to him. When I spoke, I dropped the facade that I was Kagome Higurashi, a boy.

"Hey there, Squirt. How're you feeling?" I asked, reaching over and carefully brushing his bangs from his brow. His eyes opened slowly, pools of brown hidden underneath purpled lids. I felt horrible for not stepping in and stopping those boys sooner. I was supposed to be here to protect Souta, and--!

"Like shit," he admitted weakly, trying to smile. I faked a surprised, reprimanding expression when I wagged my finger at him.

"Fsht!" I admonished, frowning. "Watch your language—you're only twelve." Souta was only twelve, but somehow he still amazed me with how fast he seemed to be growing up. He skipped an entire grade, and I figured it was his smarts that helped get him into YSG. After all, he was the youngest in his whole grade-- almost everyone else was 13, some were even 14.

Not like it was an excuse, but no wonder why he got picked on. Souta tried to act older than he really was in order to fit in, and somewhere along the lines, it backfired. Kids could be so cruel...

Souta moved slightly, hoisting himself up on trembling arms. It was apparent that doing so was hurting him, the way he was shaking-- who wouldn't be in pain after all that?

_'Oh, Souta...'_

To my surprise, my injured little brother suddenly threw himself into my arms, burying his face in my shoulder and trying to hug me as tightly as he could. I sat there in shock for a few moments before I returned his hug, reminding myself what bad shape he was in. He pulled back after a few moments, reddening slightly from his unusual display of emotions.

"Thanks, Kag-ga."

I smiled slightly when Souta called me by my old nickname. All of that felt like it was so long ago...

Souta frowned slightly after meticulously settling himself back into the bed, closing his eyes and adopting the most serious expression I'd ever seen on him.

"I s'ppose you realize now that a lot of kids here don't like me, and well... they beat up on me."

"Yeah, I kinda realized that," I answered sarcastically. I had been witness to... such brutality! Somehow I doubted that scene would ever fade from my mind.

"Why, though? Why do they do that to you, Souta?" I asked.

Souta looked away, making a motion seemingly like a shrug. He winced as the large bandage wrapped around his left shoulder shifted against his wounds, and I wasn't blind to the tears he held back.

"Well, Takeno just hates me for some reason. I think part of it is cuz me and Rin and Satsuki are such good friends, and Takeno had the biggest crush on the two girls for a while. I really don't know why, though. They treat another good friend of mine like this, too."

_'Rin... and Satsuki...' _I thought to myself. Those names were strangely familiar, and something in me suddenly wanted to protest-- "No, this is wrong, those people shouldn't be--"

_'Shouldn't be what?_' The thought ended. I didn't know.

He sighed, then shook his head. "I don't see why you had to come all the way down here, though. I can handle myself!" Yep, the Souta I knew was emerging once again. Ever since he'd come here, a year ahead of all the other students in his school, he'd believing he had to be "a big boy" and stand up for himself. He certainly didn't want me here, but I wasn't about to up and leave, not until I was sure...

_'Sure of what?'_

Sure of Souta's safety, of course, but something...

These thoughts, these strange wanderings in my head-- they had to stop. I was getting distracted from the matter at hand, and that was Souta. Souta was my number one priority, and the reason why I was here-- and...

I shot Souta a dark look, and he shrugged. I could tell he didn't want to talk about this anymore, because he immediately changed the subject.

"Hey. Are you going to the festival?"

"Most likely," I answered. "I'll probably be going with Miroku and Inuyasha and Eiji and Kouga, along with a couple of the girls from the other school." I shook my head, trying to rid my face of the smirk that had creeped up along it. Souta was the only one here who shared my secret, and if he'd been a little older, I could have told him in hushed giggles just how cute my companions were.

That was all ridiculous, of course. Souta was too young and had too many of his own problems to hear me wax on about cute boys. And I couldn't possibly tell Sango or Kikyou --certainly not Kikyou-- since they thought I was a **boy**. And it had to stay that way, for as long as necessary.

Souta shook his head in slight disbelief.

"I can't figure out how you so quickly made friends with some of the most popular guys in school." Then he blinked, looking up at me.

"Hey, that reminds me. Why didn't you just go to the all-girls' school across the street?"

I narrowed my eyes, cracking my knuckles dangerously.

"That you have to ask the old man. After I punt him sky-high, that is..." I grinned menacingly, smiling down at Souta, who was grinning broadly himself. He knew just as well as I did of Grandpa's "eccentricies" --probably greater than Miroku's, and Headmaster Kaede had sounded pretty serious about him. I probably had a lot more to learn about my new friend, but I was assured in my mind that no one, no matter how crazy, could be worse than my own Grandfather. Not after **this** stunt, anyhow.

* * *

"Kagome! Wait up!" a voice called, echoing down the halls of Yumegaru Shiritsu Gakkou.

Kagome stopped in the middle of the hall, turning to face Miroku, who was running towards her at breakneck speeds.

_'He runs like he drives,'_ Kagome thought to herself in amusement, watching Miroku dodge around people or other inanimate objects, including that of the school's founder's marble bust.

He had a couple of close calls and tripped over Professor Myouga twice. Kagome watched in bafflement, not entirely sure how Miroku managed to stumble over the old man not once but TWICE. Still, the tiny professor just sighed and continued on his way, probably used to the rough treatment.

"Hey, Kag! Where were you during Art? No wait, duh, you were at the infirmary. The question is... why?" It wasn't as if Miroku had asked this right in front of Kagome. No, Miroku was the type to **shout** a question while careening down the hall at the speed of sound, screeching to a halt the moment he got within a meter of Kagome.

Right as he said 'why,' though, he stumbled forward, tripping over his own two feet and nearly bowling right into Kagome. over. He over-balanced, then fell on his butt.

"Hey!"

Kagome sighed down at him, her face plainly exasperated with the boy. In return, Miroku just looked up at her with these big, questioning eyes. Letting out a groan, Kagome grabbed his shoulder and hefted him up.

"I'll tell you why, later. I'm still a bit ticked about it..." Kagome's eyes shifted left and right, noticing all the classmates filtering around her, some looking backwards, wondering why a new student had been excused from classes ALL DAY without apparent reason.

Miroku nodded, respecting Kagome's unspoken request for privacy. So he abruptly changed the subject to something even MORE uncomfortable.

"Hey, hey! The festival's tomorrow! Are you going to bring a girl?" Being as he was, he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Kagome, who was obviously startled by the interrogation. She rolled her eyes, looking away to cover up a sigh. Thank god Miroku had pursued the last topic in question, or more people than she cared to know about Souta would be aware of what had been going on with him lately.

"Since I know SO many girls around here..." Kagome said sarcastically, nudging Miroku in the shoulder.

"What about you? Finally going work up the nerve to ask Sango," Kagome smirked, "or are you just going to continue groping her? She might file for sexual harassment..."

Miroku stuck his tongue out at her.

"Hush, you. Anyway, our group never goes as dates. Inuyasha and Kikyou tried that a while back, and you don't even want to know how that turned out." Miroku shook his head and shuddered slightly, piquing Kagome's curiousity even more.

First Inuyasha being all vague about the subject, now Miroku? Just what had gone so wrong between Inuyasha and Kikyou that everyone was so tight-lipped about it? After all, Inuyasha and Kikyou could still stand each other's presence, but Kikyou still seemed determined to win Inuyasha back...

_'Oh, believe me, I do...' _Kagome thought to herself grimly. She wasn't sure what it was about those two, but something BOTHERED her, and she desperately wanted to know all about Inuyasha and Kikyou's past-- so that maybe it could be resolved once and for, instead of hanging in the air, as it was.

"Whatever. Anyway, when is the festival, and what time is it right now?" Kagome didn't like the feeling that the Kikyou/Inuyasha topic sent through her veins-- something strange and uncomfortable, but tingling with excitement too.

_'Gah... I better not be attracted to Inuyasha, or that would just be... bad. Very, very bad.'_ Kagome knew she **admired** Inuyasha, but his personality was... well, less than fetching. And it wasn't as if in this situation, at this particular time and place, Kagome could **afford** to like someone. No, Souta's safety --that's what Kagome kept telling herself-- was the reason why she was here... not to hunt down potential boyfriends.

_'Besides,' _Kagome told herself, shaking her head slightly as she started walking down the hall with Miroku, _'I'm not at all jealous... probably. But I guess the weird relationship between those two intrigues me. She's so demure and quiet... he's so... **not**.'_

"Well, it's already eight," Miroku murmured, shaking Kagome out of her reverie as he glanced at the hall clock, "and the others are already gone. But since I was such a good friend, I stayed and waited for you."

Kagome looked towards Miroku, an eyebrow raised in questioning. The tone of his voice had almost been **despairing**, as if everyone else had ditched poor Miroku, leaving him to wander around the school looking for companionship-- that is to say, Kagome.

But that wasn't the case at all, Kagome soon realized. It wasn't long before Miroku started asking her about what happened in the infirmary, and the girl-in-disguise realized that Miroku --excluding his habit of groping Sango (and undoubtedly other girls that were Miroku's 'type')-- was a curious sort. _'Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?_'

"We don't have any classes tomorrow, can you believe it!" Miroku continued to prattle on, even when Kagome didn't answer to his incessant questioning regarding the infirmary.

"I'm so glad Kaede is the headmaster-- she's always thinking up these awesome treats for us. We didn't get anything like this when the grouchy Mr. Haimitsu was the headmaster..."

Kagome somehow managed to derive from Miroku's ongoing babble that the festival was going to start the following morning, when third period normally began. It would lasted until the end of the day, around 5:00 p.m.

Miroku informed Kagome that the event was supposed to be just like a normal carnival, complete with rides, too-salty, too-sweet food and cheesy magic acts.

"Don't get me wrong," Miroku continued without pausing for breath, "the beginning-of-the-year festival is the best part of the year! It's so fun..."

Miroku continued on talking as the two kept wandering, outside the main school building and into the growing dark. It was at the point when Kagome could no longer see the lights of the school that she bothered to ask Miroku a question.

"Hey, Miroku, where're we going?"

For a moment, Miroku looked positively evil-- the girl could almost see little devil horns sprouting from his fluffy brown hair, and a pitchforked tail coming from his uniform pants. And one NASTY grin. Kagome swallowed nervously, her eyes shifting left and right as she wondered what her new 'friend' had plotted for her.

_'Well at least he can't try anything with me-- he doesn't know I'm a girl!'_

But that didn't bring much relief, not after Miroku announced just WHERE they were going.

"Why, where we always go!" The evil look became more pronounced as Miroku's grin widened, and Kagome could almost imagine tiny, flaming skulls dancing around his head.

_'Eep!'_

"To the ice cream shoppé."

Kagome shot him a nervous look, waiting anxiously for Miroku to continue, but at the same time, she dreaded it.

"But the thing is, since it took you soooo long to return, and the others already left.." Miroku trailed off, sliding on the heels of his shoes towards a car Kagome recognized all too well.

_'Oh no.' _

"I'm.." Miroku was being deliberately slow, and it was driving Kagome mad.

_'Oh God Almighty, please have mercy on me._ '

"...driving." Miroku finished with a smirk, dangling his keys from his hand.

_'NOOOOOOOOOOO!' _

* * *

By some miracle, by some odd chance, the two got to the ice cream shoppé in one piece. But that didn't mean that Miroku was driving any better. Not a chance in hell.

In fact, being that he was probably still annoyed at Kagome for playing that "low-down, stinkin', no-good, bloody trick" on him, he probably drove about ten times worse than usual!

_'I think I just saw my life flash before my eyes...!_' Kagome thought once the car turned down the street where the ice cream shoppé was. '_How sad.'_

Miroku didn't even have a chance to lock the parking break before Kagome had rattled the passenger-side door open and practically FLEW out of the car, throwing open the door of the shoppé and flinging herself -well, "himself"- behind Sango.

"I thought you guys liked me.." Kagome whimpered, barely making an effort to disguise her voice. She was trembling from her head to her toes, while all present, sans Sango, laughed hysterically. Sango just glanced at the stricken 'boy' hiding beyond her shoulder and blinked.

"Hey, Kagome, what's wrong?" Inuyasha asked, smirking to the point where he revealed two, pointed canine teeth. He snagged a fry from Kouga's tray, munching slowly, despite his dark-haired "friend's" glare and the way Kouga protectively encircled the tray with his arms.

Still hiding behind Sango like a coward, Kagome shot Inuyasha a dark, accusing look.

"Sure," Kagome muttered, still sore that no one had bothered to come to the infirmary and _find_ her, "It'd be a lot easier just to outright tell me you hated me, instead of trying to KILL ME!" She shot Inuyasha a vicious glare, trying to channel every bit of anger and upset that had gotten choked out of her stomach from that last ride.

Inuyasha choked on the fry he had stolen from Kouga, partly from laughter and part from surprise. Kagome continued glared at him harshly, willing her deep brown eyes to inform Inuyasha that if he died from choking on that fry, she wouldn't grieve.

_'In fact,'_ Kagome thought meanly to herself, _'I would celebrate._'

Kagome had no such luck, though. Eiji dislodged the fried potato from Inuyasha's throat by solidly whacking him on the back between his shoulder blades.

Miroku walked in a few moments later, grinning like the Cheshire cat and looking immensely pleased with himself. Sango was being quite apparent with her confusion over the whole matter, perhaps wondering why Kagome acted so strangely.

_'Or maybe,'_ Kagome speculated, _'she's just tired of all this, knowing I'd react this way to Miroku's driving. She must be used to it.' _

Out of all those present, it was Kagome's personal opinion that Sango was the most 'normal' and level-headed of all of them. To be sure, she'd only known the girl for a few days, and it wasn't as if they could be real friends --completely open and honest with one another-- but... the brunette had made a good first impression on Kagome.

_'One day, maybe if I can still be friends with these guys after this whole ordeal with Souta is over...' _ Kagome wondered if she'd just be stuck going to school here for the next three years. And after that... what then? She couldn't protect Souta forever, even if she was going to the same school as him. A worried frown creased Kagome's face as she slid into the nearest seat-- that beside Kikyou.

A cold shiver ran down Kagome's spine when she sat next to Kikyou-- but the older girl paid Kagome no mind. Kagome couldn't shake the weird feeling, but she tried to be happy with the fact that Kikyou wasn't making a fuss.

The group sat and ate for a while, making mindless chatter, but somehow dodging the whole topic of why Kagome had been called to the infirmary for the entire day. She was relieved, and didn't care to bring it up herself.

And thus, another day as a boy ended for Kagome Higurashi.

_'I wonder how long I'll survive.'_ Kagome smiled to herself, munching on a fry. _'Well, if I don't squelch this weird attraction to Inuyasha, that'll kill me. If not, then Miroku's driving should_.'

* * *

"KAAAAAAAAAGOOOOOOOOMEEEEEEEE!"

"KYAAAA!" I screamed, bolting upright in bed.

_'Souta!'_

Needless to say, I ended up with my torso -and unfortunately, my HEAD- on the not-so-clean ground, surrounded by my blankets, my legs still tangled in the sheets and twisted on the bed.

When my vision finally cleared, it wasn't Souta screaming my name from a dangerously close distance. Oh no, because at least **that** would have been excusable. Instead, it was my too-cheerful roommate. I don't know why that, as a boy, irritation came to me easier; normally someone as chipper as Hojo would make me smile and nod-- and walk away, as fast as possible.

But I guess things are different when you're forced to 'turn into a boy,' are plucked from the entire life you know, and, according to 'duty,' go on some half-assed mission in a far away place.

_'Now why does that sound so familiar?'_ I wondered, scratching my head. I wanted to close my eyes again, go back to sleep-- in my fluffy, UNTANGLED blankets.

"Nnn.." I plucked something undefinable from my hair, then glared as dangerously as I could, given that I was upside down and the blood was rushing to my head. Hojo was seated cross-legged on his bed, grinning like a banshee. My irritation was so great that morning, I had the sudden desire to claw his eyes out.

"Could we be a LITTLE more subtle?" I said, furiously, caustically, bitterly sarcastic. Did that convey enough emotion for you? Because **really**, that's how mad I was.

Hojo, of course, was completely oblivious to this, of course, and continued to grin blissfully.

"Sorry, Kagome! I just didn't want you to miss your first 'Welcoming Festival'!"

_'Well, one thing's for sure_,' I thought to myself angrily, attempting to detangle my legs from the sheets, and succeeding in falling to the floor completely. _'Hojo doesn't learn.'_

What's probably not so obvious, though, is that I don't learn either. In fact, I'm quite stubborn when it gets down to certain matters. It so happened that I'd prattled on so much last night about meeting up with everyone early, and saying over and over that I'd **be there**, I'd **be there**...

"Omigod!" I somehow managed to fit those three words into one single breath, mushing them into one word of its own class. With amazing gymnastic skills I didn't know I had, I managed to pull off a backwards soumersault, somehow catching my sheets-- and everything attached to it, meaning my sheets, and the mattress itself-- and dragging them down with me, right onto me.

"I'm going to be late! Miroku is going to **KILL** me!" My hands darted out from underneath my formerly soft 'confinement' and tried to lift the mattress -and shove it back onto the box spring- as quickly as I could.

"Hoi! Kagome, don't worry! We still have two more hours until the festival actually starts..." Hojo said, still smiling. I still was trapped under the mattress when Hojo announced this, and as hard as it was, I managed to flip my body around slowly, my grin probably as demonic as Miroku's had been last night.

I stared at him in disbelief for a few moments.

"YOU WOKE ME UP TO TELL ME THAT!"

Innocent grin.

There was just no way this guy could be real. He had probably some truly evil personality under that 'innocent' and 'well-meaning' grin of his. I bet he didn't want to go to this school at all, and, got assigned here. Maybe his parents dumped him here, and they were off in Cantigua or somesuch.

Maybe Hojo had some deeply-embedded hatred for the school-- after all, it was an all-boy's school, and even though I'd gone to an all-girl's myself --why didn't that thought sound right?-- it was probably more likely that boys would go crazy from lack of frequent interaction with girls-- instead of the other way around. Or maybe, maybe Hojo had really wanted to be home-schooled, so he could live in the basement all the time and only have the cockroaches as his friends...!

Okay, so maybe I was a little bitter. Or maybe Hojo really _**was**_ just a moron.

"I am going back to sleep," I informed him tightly, trying to resist the temptation to throw the mattress AT Hojo at that particular moment. I guess it was a rule of thumb --back at my house, I mean-- that I'm not a happy camper in the morning-- especially when I don't t get enough sleep, when I get tangled up in my sheets, when my mattress squishes me to a DIRTY floor-- and oh yeah-- when I'm stuck being roomies with an inconsiderate moron in an all-boy's school because I'm DISGUISED AS A BOY!

I then pulled the mattress up all the way over my head, using it as an overly-thick comforter, blocking the incoming sunlight from streaming into my eyes. I won't even sicken you and tell you just what was on the floor that I was lying on.

"On the floor?" Hojo asked, appalled. "Kagome, that must be uncomfor—"

"Hojo?" I groaned, voice muffled.

"Yes, Kagome?"

"Shut. Up."

"Yes, Kagome..."

I woke up an hour and a half later to someone jumping on top of the mattress that I had been using as a blanket. Now, being stuck on a horribly uncomfortable, hard, sticky floor, still tangled in half my sheets, I wasn't up to being generous and polite to whoever it was.

Besides, whoever was jumping on the mattress felt awfully heavy. Considering my state of mind at the moment, 'heavy' meant anything that weighed a single KILOGRAM more than I did! I gathered that the only person possible to be bouncing on ME was Miroku, since after the third bounce, I started to hear a muffled and off-key V6 song. From the sound of the voice, I was quick to deduce that it was Miroku-- and he was quickly crushing my ribs with his incessant bouncing.

_'I should probably tell him to work out more! OW!'_

I poked my head out from underneatht he mattress, attempting to speak between Miroku's bounces that compressed my lungs and knocked the wind out of me.

"Ugh... we better... ack, my **ribs**... stop going to the ice cream sho --WATCH THAT KNEE!-- ppé.. because DAMN, Miroku... OWWWW! YOU'RE GETTING FAT!"

Miroku stopped bouncing, took one look at my undoubtedly red face, and proceeded to ground-slam me like he was some sort of wrestler. I yelped loudly, muttering all sorts of colorful curses and epithets, all the while glaring dangerously at the brightly smiling boy.

"You're as bad as Hojo," was my biting remark. Miroku responded by smothering me with a pillow.

"Do not speak the blasphemous name!"

"Feh," I cursed under my breath. It wasn't until I 'became a boy' that I really started swearing so much. Honest.

I was wriggling as best I could, trying to get out from underneath the mattress. Not an easy task, considering Miroku sat on top of my solar plexus --well, with 10 centimeters of mattress between him and me, but STILL-- and he kept smothering a pillow to my face. I thrust my hips forward, knocking Miroku off the mattress, and quickly wriggled out from under the pillow and mattress, glaring at Miroku for every yen I was worth.

He grinned back at me, trying to look innocent.

I was feeling quite unladylike at the moment (and all things considered, I suppose it didn't matter, since I was supposed to be a boy then and there) and cursed Miroku out a few more times before I attempted to stand. My chest was hurting like heck, wincing as I stood up on wobbly feet. Well, one thing was for sure, I was going to have some nasty bruises the next day.

"I'm going to go get changed," I grumbled, grabbing a few clothes I'd shoved into a plastic bag, and a pillow.

"Make my bed, will ya?"

With that, I threw the pillow I was holding, right into Miroku's face. Since Miroku wasn't paying attention, it smacked him right on the nose.

"Kaaaagooommeeee!"

* * *

I walked out a few minutes later, face freshly scrubbed clean, and dressed in a pair of jeans and a baggy navy-blue sweatshirt. Miroku the Idiot was still sitting on my mattress, which was still on the floor. I mock-pouted at him.

"I thought you were going to make my bed!"

"Bull crap!" was Miroku's intelligent answer. "Come on, we gotta go." He didn't give me time to protest before he grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of my room, slamming the door shut with his foot as he went along.

Once again, I was subjected to Miroku Express as he dragged me through the many halls. After several unsucessful attempts of trying to free myself from Miroku's iron grip, I sighed and resigned myself to fate.

Nothing was normal when it came to Miroku, anyway.

While he dragged me towards the front of the school, Miroku informed me that I wouldn't have to worry about his wild driving, since the festival was only a few blocks from our school and we would be walking. At this, I let out an overdramatized sigh of relief, and in turn, received an elbow to the gut. Stupid Miroku.

* * *

The festival was set up in a big concrete lot that looked awfully out of place here in Tokyo, but I guess since it was a residential neighborhood, it could be expected every now and then. You couldn't really tell that the place had once been a desolate lot though, since it wasn't _empty _at all-- it was packed from end to end with students, every free space filled with huge white tents and colorful streamers, booths, and the smell of cotton candy and kettle corn immediately filling my nose.

For some reason, Miroku and I met Kikyou and Sango at the festival entrance, instead of at their school. I assumed that everyone had decided to meet at the festival to save time. I had no problem meeting them there --maybe I was a _bit_ disturbed by Kikyou, but that wasn't MY fault, she just gave off this vibe-- anyway, the thing that gave me the heebie-jeebies, as it were, were all the "glances" I was getting from various YSJ girls on our way there. They weren't looking at me like they knew I was a crossdressing girl --somehow that might have been more of a relief-- but they were... well, checking me out.

Quite openly, too. One particular girl eyed me up and down, smirked right at me when we made eye contact and **licked** her lips. I hope she was just trying to get off the stick that the cotton candy in her hand left on her mouth. I hope.

That was so embarassing though, I was bright red before I'd even been in the sun for twenty minutes. Good thing Miroku and them didn't notice.

I trained my attention on the festval once we got there-- pretty soon tuning out everything else. The sights, the sounds-- I couldn't remember the last carnival or festival that I'd been to. I felt like there was a hazy memory just escaping my mind, but the last, _clear_ memory I had of anything REMOTELY like this was... gosh, almost when I was five! So long ago!

Mama loved to talk all about that time, though, and she usually started prattling about it when all my friends were over. Good thing I wouldn't have to worry about THAT happening with these guys. Hopefully. The whole story went that I'd been happily eating a cotton candy when a clown appeared out of nowhere and scared the bejeezus out of me. It so happened I was staring at a whack-a-rat game, and I snatched the huge hammer right off the machine and chased that clown around-- dropping my precious cotton candy in the process.My first --and last? I couldn't remember, for some reason-- time at the carnival.

_'Once was enough,' _Mom said every time I asked her. So that was it.

But now, here I was again, in the midst of all that wonder and excitement-- and it felt like it had been so long since I honestly had FUN with anyone. Filled with childish excitement as I was, I was oblivious to how 'normal' my friends were acting.

"It's a Ferris wheel!" I downright squealed. Bright and colorful, with large lightbulbs lighting up in various patterns as the wheel made its slow revolutions. I looked at the ride in awe for a few moments, stars in my eyes, before I noticed the extremely odd looks I was getting from my friends.

Major blush.

"Uh, uhm... sorry..." I cleared my throat, shifting from foot to foot, attempting to will the blood away from my cheeks, "I... uh --ahem-- haven't been t-to uh... a festival since I was... well, five..."

_'As if THAT'S an excuse...!' _

Blink blink. Silence all around. It wasn't as if Kikyou of all people was going to say something, so mostly the two gaping at me were Miroku and Sango.

"..." I shot them each a deadpan look, then stomped off towards one of the stands.

"Well, feh! If you guys are just going to stand there and gawk all day, I'm going to go... uh.. to this... tent here!" And I stomped towards the nearest white tent, decorated with purple and black streamers, a single red bow over the door-flap. It wasn't until later that I realized why I had such a strange feeling before tossing open that flap, but... well, back then, I was more than a bit naive.

That is where life got interesting. To say the least.

* * *

"Did Kagome just squeal?" Sango whispered to Miroku --even though I was only a few meters away-- who, in turn, shrugged. Sango paused, and her eyes widened slightly. Her cheeks flushed, and I immediately knew what happened. In a split second, she slapped Miroku's hand away with a scream, "PERVERT!"

Miroku pouted and rubbed his "poor, offended hand." It had been edging towards her butt, I realized with a laugh.

"Hey! Sango! I'm sorry! I can't help it though-- sometimes my hand has a mind of its own!" Somehow that didn't sound quite right to me, but I smirked anyway, waiting for them to join me at the tent-- whatever was inside.

I rolled my eyes as Sango came running towards me, an annoyed expression on her face.

"Kagome! Wait up! I prefer your company over Miroku the Idiot's, any day!" She jogged towards me, long brown hair bouncing in a ponytail behind her.

"Saaaangoooo! Hold on! I'm sorry, butt-- I mean, **your** butt was, well, it was... just there! It was calling out to meee!" I rolled my eyes at Miroku's antics. He was your typical teenage male...

I sighed and wondered how I got trapped with this bizarre group.

* * *

Kagome wandered into the tent, her eyes suddenly greeted with a big banner reading 'Welcome to the Magic Show!' Several students were scurrying around setting up various stage props and lights, while others were out in the 'pit,' busy setting up chairs for the slowly incoming audience.

Sango drifted in after Kagome, the former girl still trying to fend off Miroku and his 'advances.' Tagging along was Kikyou, who looked less than enthused to be present, followed by Inuyasha and Eiji.

Everyone sans Kagome was idly chatting to one another. Well, Kikyou seemed to be _trying_ to strike up a conversation with Inuyasha, but he, like Kagome, seemed fascinated with the sheer SIZE of the tent. From the outside, it hadn't seemed like much, but inside-- well, it easily could have been the size of the YSG gym!

_'I wonder if my house would fit in here,'_ Kagome wondered silently to herself. She started walking down a slope of stairs made from, like the rest of the floor and seats, wooden panels. Kagome found an empty row of seats and seated herself on the bench, soon after joined by Sango, Miroku, Kikyou, Inuyasha, and Eiji.

All around them, kids of other ages --probably students from the younger YSG and YSJ schools-- were sitting in their little crowds, throwing popcorn kernels at one another, or making jokes about the upcoming magic show. From where Kagome's group sat, one had a perfect view of the stage.

"I can't believe we actually came here," Inuyasha grumbled, settling himself down on the bench, "What the hell is with all this magic shit? Do you guys actually believe this kind of thing?" He shot a scathing glare at Kagome, but she was too busy being awed by all the lights and decorations to notice.

"Hey," Miroku said easily, draping an arm around Sango's shoulders. "We'll just have to suffer through it for the girls.."

Sango elbowed him again, and he winced and dropped his arm to his side, pouting at her.

"Well," Kikyou drawled to Kagome beside her, "You look like you're enjoying yourself.."

Kagome looked like she was about to say something back to Kikyou, but was beaten by Sango, who smiled sweetly and said, "Hey, Kikyou, let's not make this an unpleasant experience, okay? Have fun!"

Kikyou's porcelain expression cracked when she frowned ever-so-slightly, but she quickly turned away. Meanwhile, Sango and Kagome pouted. Kagome was half-tempted to stick her tongue out at the stuffy older girl, but decided against it.

_'She sure has one hell of a grudge against me for no reason. I mean we just met... but I have to say, I get a bad feeling around her, too. Maybe she gets the same sort of vibe from me that I do from her. Nah, that'd just be too weird.' _Kagome shook her head to rid herself of the pestering thoughts, and tried to focus on her friends around her, and the magic show due to in half an hour.

"Hey, Kagome?" Miroku asked, leaning behind Sango and sugesstively wiggling his eyebrows at her behind. Sango wasn't blind to the creeping movement his hand was making, and shot him a dangerous glare from the corner of her eye, quickly forcing the youth to keeping his appendages to himself.

Sango was seated between Kagome and Miroku, but, judging by the expression on her face, she looked as if she would have rathered to be seated next to anyone else. More likely than not, she would have preferred Kagome in the middle, so that Sango herself wouldn't be in groping distance of Miroku's "Roamin' Hands." Kagome merely smirked at Sango when the girl shot her a pleading, pitiful look.

"Yeah?" Kagome turned back to the stage, hoping she hadn't missed the setup of some strange prop that had something to do with how the magic "worked." She was just as excited as she had been earlier, only now her excitement shone through her sparkling eyes, rather than her jumping around and squealing.

Still though, in the midst of her excitement, there was another subliminal, distinctly **nagging** feeling that Kagome was getting. A similar sort of vibe that she got when she was around Kikyou, but... _different_. The girl-in-disguise swallowed, not realizing there'd been a painful lump obstructing her breathing.

Kagome didn't like the feeling she was getting-- not as it intensified and her shivers manifested into goosebumps, and the hair on the back of her neck began to stand. No, something very **bad** was about to happen...

"What do you think about this kinda stuff? D'ya think it's a whole bunch of fake shit?" Miroku's voice interrupted Kagome's train of thought, while she barely spared him a glance in his direction. If something bad was indeed going to happen, she had to play close attention to everything that was going into the "magic" of this show.

"Well..." Kagome paused, scratching the back of her neck, mulling over an answer, "The thought kind of creeps me out, you know? I wouldn't want anyone controlling me with hypnosis or whatever."

"Oh please," Inuyasha snorted, tossing up a popcorn kernel and catching it in his mouth. Kagome snatched one from the large bucket shared between all of them, and tried to do the same. Unfortunately, it didn't go the way Kagome intended, as the kernel hit the girl's nose and bounced to the ground.

In response, Inuyasha just smirked triumphantly, taking another kernel and repeating his previous action with it.

"You know the people who get 'hypnotized' are just faking it, for the sake of being in the spotlight. Heh, If I were up there, I'd prove to everyone here how dumb they're being, believing in this shit..."

The group, in the midst of their debate, didn't notice a pair of glowing red eyes narrow.

"La..." a voice whispered, "That girl is here. She may have changed her appearance, but it is the same one." The figure, shrouded in the darkness behind the curtains, cracked her knuckles.

"While I might have to thank her for helping bring me back... this time, I will be sure to finish her off-- once and for all!"

* * *

Time wore on easily, the half-hour disappearing into scant minutes. The magician that everyone was babbling about -Yuka? Yuna?- was nowhere to be found. Even the stagehands were exchaging nervous glances with one another. Was all their work to be for naught?

It was plain that even the audience was starting to get antsy at the prospect of an empty stage and wasted time.

"Maybe we should just go," Miroku muttered to Sango. "I mean, it's a waste of tim--" Before Miroku could finish his sentence there was a loud explosion from the stage, and once everyone's eyes were riveted there, a blossom --made of fiberglass strands?-- bloomed from the floor of the stage, shining various colors, the 'petals' parting to reveal a shadow standing in the center.

Several people in the audience were still gasping from the surprise that the explosion had made, while others were "oohing" and "aahing" at the beautiful effects the glowing "flower" made. No one noticed the stagehands huddled in the corner, muttering and pointing at the strange effect, even as it slithered back into the floor.

They had had no part in assembling such an effect for the opening of the show, and wondered just how it had happened. Magic, perhaps?

"WELCOME!" the shadow spoke with a female voice, the echo bouncing off the walls of the tent and the stage. The sound sent shivers down Kagome's spine. If she'd been feeling strange earlier, that feeling was multiplied hundreds of time. No, something definitely was **not **right here.

The stage plunged into darkness, and Kagome veritably **squeaked**, grabbing Sango's arm without realizing it. The girl turned and looked at Kagome in surprise, her expression curious, and when Kagome realized what she'd done -gotten far too close to blowing her cover- she snatched her arm away.

Despite the foreboding feeling growing in the pit of her stomach, Kagome told herself repeatedly that she shouldn't be afraid. If something was indeed 'wrong' with this magic show, she would have to find out what it was.

All of a sudden, the stage burst into sparkling light, the wooden planks reflecting multiple hues of orange, yellow, and gold. The audience gasped in plesant surprise, including a few from Kagome's own company. Smoke --or was it fog?-- wisped down the stage, pouring into the pits where the audience sat-- but when it was within a mere meter of the first person on the benches, it vanished into thin air. The audience did their job -oohing, aahing, and gasping in all the right places- but Inuyasha simply let out an unimpressed grunt. It would obviously take more 'special effects' than what this place had to offer to get **his** attention.

Kagome, on the other hand, had turned as white as a sheet.

_'What... what was that just now? I saw...'_

She couldn't explain it. Though everyone else had seen beautiful colors and shining lights, Kagome felt as if she'd closed her eyes and seen a dream on fast-forward. A vast, green forest, sparkling with an eerie and strange light. The slithering of vines on old wooden planks, of... strange... creatures on soft dirt. The click-clacking of... bones...

Sights and sounds that had nothing to do with the magic show, and yet Kagome had SEEN them, HEARD them and FELT them. They couldn't have been anything less than real, and yet... when she glanced up, there was nothing. No trees, no strange, dark-but-glowing light, no vines, no ...

"Hey, Kagome..." Sango whispered, poking the 'boy' in the ribs. "You look like you just saw a ghost!"

_'No, not a ghost. Something worse.' _Kagome thought. She rubbed her eyes, trying to rid herself of the horrible illusion she'd just been subjected to. But even when her vision was cleared of the strange 'illusion,' she was still seeing things.

_'H-Hair...?'_

Hundreds of thousands of strands, glistening in the light the same way that 'fiberglass flower' had. Going every which-way, Criss-crossing, like a gigantic cat's cradle, with no end and no beginning.

"Th-there's h-hair.." Kagome stuttered. She glanced upwards for a moment, realizing that every single stage light was unlit. So the light was coming from... the hair? And it HAD to be hair, the way it was bending, twisting, and... Kagome didn't understand it, not one bit, but... There was simply no other explanation for it.

"Where?" Sango asked, her hushed voice belying her confusion. Kagome turned her stunned gaze from the stage to her friend beside her, watching as the tall brunette analyzed the stage, looking at it from various angles, but still not being able to see what Kagome saw.

Kagome's face paled even further as she realized this.

_'Am... am I going crazy?'_ She looked at the stage again, but the hair -glowing- was still there, slithering.

The shadow emerged from the darkness behind the glowing strands that Kagome's friends didn't see. More smoke poured from the sides of the stage, giving a grand entrance to a youthful, scantily-clad girl with short brown hair. She had a strange sort of smile on her face, one that Kagome couldn't decipher. There was an odd sensation of deja vu throughout the whole ordeal, but before Kagome could attempt to place the magician-girl's face with a name or a place that she'd seen her before, the young woman bowed low, revealing a good deal of cleavage.

Catcalls and wolf whistles sounded from every end of the tent, including one loud holler of "I believe in magic!" Sango and Kagome exchanged a glance, rolling their eyes, while Miroku started to rise from his seat and cheer. Sango had to force the boy down with her arm, keeping his mouth shut with her palm. She was obviously restraining herself from NOT bashing Miroku over the head, just to get him to shut up for the rest of the entire evening.

"La Thank you for coming to my show. I am Yura, a..." she smirked, "hypnotist!" The girl lilted out with a smile. Kagome saw the glistening white of the girl's teeth, even from where she was sitting. The hair was still Kagome's primary distraction, but the girl's glittering teeth made Kagome wish the scantily-clad girl --who could be so open and flagrant with her feminity-- would get cavities.

"To get down to business, may I have two volunteers?" Yura looked out to the audience, her eyes grazing each and every bench. She drew a --it had to be fake, right?-- sword from a sheath at her side. The enclosure for the sword was attached to her hip with a colorful printed cloth that was the same blood-red color as the ribbon in her hair.

Several hands shot up, mostly males, but a few curious females raised their hands as well. Of Kagome's present company, it was Miroku who had raised his hand -or more accurately, wove it around madly, like he was signaling an airplane.

But Yura's attention didn't fall on Miroku at all. Rather, her gaze seemed to alight on Kagome specifically, and with her sword, she pointed right at the girl-in-disguise. Kagome swallowed hard, wondering if all the odd feelings she'd been getting all day were finally culminating in something.

Yura grinned viciously, licking her teeth before she spoke, "You! Young man, in the blue sweater, please come down!" Her gaze traveled to Kagome's right, her eyes widening slightly as she recognized Inuyasha.

"Bring your friend with you. The one with the long black hair."

Inuyasha froze, his face paling as he realized he was the one Yura was referring to. He shifted slightly -all his friends staring at him expectantly, He'd been waiting for the chance to prove to all his classmates and the festival attendees that magic and hypnotism was a bunch of bull. So why then, did he seem-- afraid? It was hardly his character.

Kagome was blinking in astonishment. She was still wary of the strange Yura girl and the hair that no one else but her could see. Was that the reason Yura had chosen Kagome? She supposed that there was no better way to find out than to go onstage-- even if it meant confronting someone potentially dangerous.

Kagome was about to rise, but she realized suddenly that Inuyasha had not. Since he sat beside her, Kagome clutched his arm, causing the boy to shoot her a startled look. Kagome glared at him, trying to cover up her fear that she'd slipped **yet again**.

"Hey," she started hastily, her voice gruff as she realized she had to keep pretending to be a boy, no matter what, "You said you wanted to go there and prove everyone how dumb hypnosis was.. well, here's your chance!"

Inuyasha favored Kagome with the same startled then unimpressed expressions, remaining firmly in his seat. Kagome played on what she realized was Inuyasha's weak point --his ego-- and released his arm, standing and starting to head down the aisle of seats on her own.

"Well, it's up to you," she muttered, smirking when Inuyasha couldn't see, "Chicken."

"Hey!" Kagome got her desired reaction, and Inuyasha leapt to his feet, following the short-haired 'boy.' "I ain't chicken! Hell, I'll prove to you just how not chicken I am!" With that statement, he stomped ahead of a surprised Kagome, then leapt onto the stage with agile grace that didn't look like it matched his body. Kagome blinked, then hurried after him and followed his example, though she ended up clambering onto the stage, rather than 'leaping gracefully' onto it.

_'Well,'_ she thought resignedly to herself, _'no one ever said I was graceful...'_

Once on stage, Yura moved closer to the pair, her smile unnerving to the both of them. Kagome was still curious about all the hairs surrounding the stage-- it seemed as though most of them were high above the stage, but Kagome swore she'd seen a few at eye-level as she'd gotten onstage.

For a moment, Kagome swore she saw Yura's deep brown eyes flash a glittering red, but then the vision was gone. No, Kagome was unsettled enough as it was, what with that weird **vision** she'd seen, and all those strange, glowing hairs...

Yura beckoned the two forward, and it was then that Kagome saw the hundreds of strands that were, indeed, at eye-level and below. For a moment, she was tempted to grab Inuyasha back, thinking that something dangerous would happen to him if he tried to pass through the invisible hairs. But he paid them no mind -he probably couldn't see them, Kagome mused- and when he reached those separating him from Yura, they mysteriously parted, disappearing and straightening themselves in a new formation.

The lights that the hairs emitted changed appropriately, now glowing in shades of green and blue. The audience gasped appropriately, continuing to be awed by the stage effects.

"Your name?" Kagome practically jumped in surprise, staring down at the microphone that had been shoved into her face. Yura's perfectly manicured nails were sharp and red, clicking against the metal of the microphone base.

"K-Kagome," she said clearly, trying to keep her voice low. A few loud -and obnoxious- cheers sounded from the audience. Kagome shot Miroku and Eiji glares worthy of melting steel. The noises ceased, but a wave of quiet laughter rippled through the audience, causing Kagome's cheeks to burn a faint red color.

"Inuyasha," the boy gruffly spoke when the mic was shoved into his face. He shot Yura a faintly annoyed expression, especially with the way Yura was looking at his hair. The girl was circling around him in an almost predatory fashion, but it didn't seem as if Inuyasha was all that unnerved. Perhaps he was used to this kind of behavior-- scantily-clad girls stalking around him, quite openly eyeing his hair and body up and down, for every centimeter it was worth?

"Ah, Inuyasha, tell me. What do you think about hypnosis?" She smirked, glancing at Kagome out of the corner of her eye. The girl-in-disguise swallowed, wondering just what Yura knew. She knew at this point that Yura was someone... _'she shouldn't be here... I didn't mean to--!'_ someone from her past.

_'Yura, Yura, Yura...'_

Kagome chanted the name in her head silently, wondering if the name would bring back any memories. When Inuyasha gave Yura his answer, it came to Kagome, in a sudden and startling flash, the same as before.

_'Yura... Yura of the Hair!'_

Kagome wasn't entirely sure where that epithet had come from, but it sounded so appropriate. Still, how could such a simple name have such a terrifying feeling attached to it? That same, unnerving, cold vibe... of wrongness.

"It's a load of bull crap," Inuyasha stated, taking a step back. Yura moved with adept precision, suddenly balancing on the tips of her toes so she could look Inuyasha level in the eye.

"Oh, really?" She licked her lips slightly, and waved her hands. No one else saw it, but Kagome did-- strands of hair creeping up from the stage, from the rafters. Thousands -no, millions- more strands than before, with greater sharpness and strength.

Inuyasha blinked again, looking faintly confused, and then seemed to drop into a sort of sleep. He was still standing straight up, but his arms had dropped to his sides, and his head lolled to one side. The fear Kagome had been holding back intensified tenfold.

_'First the vision of that... **place**... then, all this hair that I can see, but no one else can. And now... Inuyasha! Wake up!'_ Kagome knew something was very wrong here, very wrong with this 'magic,' with this 'hypnosis,' with Yura herself. She just didn't know what it was.

Yura's expression was humorless as she turned to Kagome, her smile gone completely. Kagome realized with a start that Yura's eyes were now a bright crimson-- not their original brown, as she thought they'd been.

_ I must thank you for aiding in my ressurection, la. But even if your life doesn't end here and now, it will. And by my hand. _

Kagome was frozen in place. The voice she'd just heard was most assuredly Yura's, though the girl's lips hadn't moved! The audience was silent, awaiting whatever magic Yura was about to cast on Kagome.

_ This illusion will last as long as you desire it, girl. And I do know that you are a girl. Curious, the way you have all changed yourselves. Is this what you wished upon your... friend, here? But no matter, I shall get my answers later. For now, I will do **you** a favor. _

Yura moved towards Inuyasha, fingering a few strands of his hair, and then moving up to his neck. A strange glittering gathered there, purple, blue, pink, and black in color. For a moment, Kagome thought it was the hairs again, coalescing around Inuyasha's neck and maybe about to--

_ Don't worry, young one, not yet. This isn't a spell **I've** cast on Inuyasha. It's **yours**. I'm just... revealing it for you. Remember, girl? La... a subduing rosary around this one's neck, that can only be removed by your hand. Here even before we first met, all that time ago. Still here, but hidden by an illusion... _

Kagome's eyes fluttered open and closed as she swayed in place, invisible hairs seeming to rock her from side to side. Between blinks, she saw the mass of hair all around her, saw them creeping around Inuyasha's shoulders to hold him in place... saw... was that Yura, plucking a strand from Inuyasha's head?

No, because when Kagome opened her eyes again, Yura was nowhere near Inuyasha, and he didn't look disturbed in the slightest.

_ Do you remember me yet, girl? Remember what you did ... how you **killed** me? You will suffer for that, even if it was you that brought me back... **here**. Now, just for some fun and games, shall we enchant your friend once more? Remember the spell you cast on him? Remember... and cast it once more... when I clap my hands! _

Yura's "mind-voice" drifted into nothingness, and Kagome slowly started to regain the feeling in her body, awareness of the world slowly filtering back.

Kagome blinked rapidly, as did Inuyasha. When her vision cleared, Kagome could no longer see any hairs-- not on the stage, the rafters, not anywhere. Had it all been some sort of dream? Or had it been part of the hypnosis?

"Aren't you supposed to be.. uh.. trying to hypnotize us or something?" Inuyasha mirrored Kagome's confused look, now that he was completely awake.

The crowd "oohed" as they realized Yura's spell seemed to have work.

"Now, my friends," Yura smiled, "I have enchanted both Inuyasha **and** Kagome here. Yet neither of them remember what I have enchanted them to do. Shall we watch and see?" She smiled devilishly at the pair, exchanging glances from opposite sides of the stage.

"Mr. Kagome, Inuyasha has been a very bad boy," Yura smirked, especially when Inuyasha growled at her.

_'She used an honorific for my name!'_ Kagome realized in horror. _'Was that on purpose, or... does she know--?'_ Yura was either implying she knew Kagome's secret... or she was just trying to be rude to Inuyasha by _not_ using one for him.

"What do you tell him?" And then Yura clapped.

Kagome blinked, her mouth opened for her to speak She didn't even realize that her lips moved, and when she did, her voice was harsh and commanding.

"SIT!"

**_B-TAAAAANNG!_**

Kagome blinked as she saw Inuyasha's neck _glow_ and then-- he collided face first with the ground, as if he'd been pushed by a weight.

Yura was staring at Kagome, her mouth open in a slight smile.

"La... you used 'sit' as a subduing spell? How amusing."

"A sub-wha?" Kagome's mouth fell open, wondering what the heck Yura was talking about. This was all too weird. But before she could mull on it much longer, the audience --especially the section where Miroku and company were seated-- went wild. Cheers erupted throughout the tent, people laughing and clapping.

After a moment, Inuyasha pushed himself up off the floor and glared at Kagome, his violet eyes narrowed dangerously.

"BITCH!" Kagome swallowed as she turned to face Inuyasha, wondering if his anger-filled insult had the connotations it was supposed to. But there was no way-- how could he possibly know...?

"Hey," Kagome shot back, annoyed and confused, "I didn't mean to! All I said was 'sit'..."

**_CRASH!_**

Once again, Inuyasha became personally acquainted with the floor-- face first. Kagome clamped her hands over her mouth, an apologetic expression on her face. She didn't know just what Yura had said or done to her, but there was **definitely **something was odd about all this.

"Sorry! Sorry, I mean... oops, look, I really didn't mean to--" But Kagome was having a hard time forming sentences, what with the crowd cheering so loudly and Inuyasha slowly twitching, turning his head slightly to face her and glare, ten times the glare from before.

_'Inuyasha is going to **kill** me.' _Kagome thought, swallowing.

* * *

"I must say," Miroku grinned impishly as the group walked out of the magic tent, "I've never known someone who used their face to 'sit'..." He smirked at Inuyasha, who winced upon usage of the S-word, but nothing happened.

I kept silent, with my hands shoved in my pockets. I was gazing at my feet somewhat forlornly-- after all, I'd messed up what was **supposed** to be a fun day out with my friends, by going and getting myself hypnotized to HURT one of them!

Inuyasha, for his worth, was staying as far away from me as possible, as I was him. But while I was upset and maybe even sad, he was boiling with unchecked anger. I figured I was a hair's breadth from incurring his wrath --the one Miroku had mentioned so casually while he gave me the tour of YSG-- if I so much as spoke a syllable.

"It's not funny!" Kikyou stated plainly, swatting Miroku upside the head. It was a very "unladylike" action, and something I didn't completely expect from Kikyou. But I was a little bit too involved in my own depression to think much about her.

"How would you like it if you fell face first into the ground after Kagome said 'sit'?" Kikyou continued, then she pressed her lips together, noticing Inuyasha's wince.

Still, nothing happened, so I figured the subduing spell --or whatever it was that Yura had called it-- could only be activated by me.

"Well, what do you think, Kagome?" Kouga asked. I was completely unaware of his devilish grin until after the fact. I looked up at Kouga forlornly, my voice plain and almost monotone.

"I think what we have here is a sit--"

**SLAM!**

"--uation.." I trailed off uncomfortably. This was not good.

"BIIIIIITCH!"

Definitely not good.

* * *

Whoo-hoo! Finally we get the non-AU-ness moving! I hope you noticed the differences between SD and DD-- especially with Yura's "speech." That will most definitely come into play later in the fic. The big changes will start happening from here on out-- events that happened in X chapter in SD might not happen until Y chapter in DD. Get it? Got it? Good.

I hope you liked-- let me know what you think! I managed to finish this up in a few days! Yay me!

_See you next chapter! Azurite_


	4. Tangled Up In You

**Dream A Dream  
Chapter 4:** Tangled Up In You  
**Revised:** 4/24/05 - No more fangirl Japanese, among other things...   
**An _Inuyasha_ Fanfiction  
By:** Azurite - azurite AT fanfiction DOT net  
**Rated:** PG-13 

Okay, I'm trying to keep this short and simple, so you can get right to the story.  
(1) Doujinfic. Got Clara's Permission. My Plot. No Stealing.  
(2) I No Own Inuyasha. Takahashi Own Inuyasha. Takahashi Rules.  
(3) POV Changes from 1st person to 3rd Person and back again. Marked with Easy Lines.  
(4) Notes/Thank-Yous At Bottom!  
(5) Am Trying VERY HARD to have original chapter titles. Currently not succeeding all that much...  
(6) Sticking to Japanese school calendar, Japanese names, etc. Same goes for Japanese sports season. 

Oh, and of course, go check out Clara's website hopefully she'll update SD there first  
http/ 

"like, this is speech"  
_and these are thoughts  
_**and these words are EMPHASIZED!**

**SLIGHT RECAP:** Okay, so pretty much SD and DD have been parallel to one another-- Kagome Higurashi is your ordinary school-girl until her hair brained grandfather determines that the best way to keep watch over Kagome's younger brother, Souta, is to send Kagome to HIS school-- which happens to be an all-boys' school across town! So Kagome gives up her feminity to protect her brother from whoever's bullying him-- but in the process, she ends up getting sucked into a rather "interesting" group of friends. She feels like she's met them all before, but doesn't know where from. When the bunch of them go to the Welcoming school festival, both Inuyasha and Kagome get "hypnotized" by a strange girl named Yura. Kagome feels uneasy around this "magician" who tells her strange things-- about her having been brought back to life, and of Inuyasha having a spell around him. When the two of them snap out of Yura's enchantment, Kagome's able to "subdue" Inuyasha by SITting him! Why is this so familiar...? 

**PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! **

* * *

"All that we see or seen  
Is but a dream within a dream."  
--Edgar Allan Poe

* * *

Inuyasha was pissed. 

Well of course he was pissed, I mean, someone he had barely known for three days suddenly had the ability to flatten him to the ground with a single word. And it wasn't even some uncommon word from a foreign language it was-- si... 

That was terrible. I mean, it wasn't just any spell on Inuyasha, it was a --what had Yura called it?-- a _subduing_ spell. And he probably thought it was making fun of his name-- I mean, a command you'd normally give to a **dog**, and his name was **Inu**yasha. 

I felt horrible, but there didn't seem to be much I could do to appease Inuyasha's anger. And besides that, my mind was still muddled from everything that had happened. I remembered seeing something... and then Yura spotted us, and we went down to the stage. And then... a blank. Words echoed faintly in the back of my mind, words that gave me a chill through my bones. But I couldn't think of them. 

All I knew was that I was afraid-- terrified out my mind, even. I had seen --heard?-- something that I shouldn't have, something that scared me. 

Yura had something to do with it, but I didn't know just what it was. This whole mess with Inuyasha being under some spell just made things worse. How in the world could I do anything about it? After the show, we'd tried to find Yura, but she'd been surrounded by guys-- but once they moved away, she vanished. 

I settled for frowning and walking as far away from Inuyasha as possible. This 'thing' didn't give me any plus points with Inuyasha, that was for sure. Had I been in his position, I'm sure I would have been angry too. It wasn't as if it was even provoked, really. I guess I really HAD been under Yura's spell. 

Inuyasha, for his part, had no problem staying as far away from me as he could. And since the other guys found it entirely too amusing that with a single word, Inuyasha would eat dirt, he strayed away from them too. 

My mistake had been letting the guys provoke me into saying it, and when I had, Inuyasha was even MORE angry with me. This was horrible. Downright **terrible**. He'd gone and called me a "bitch" again, to which I grumbled back, "I'm not a FEMALE dog." I put careful emphasis on "female," though I doubted anyone present would have understood the reference anyway. 

I crouched beside Inuyasha after he fell, while beside me, Kikyou stood, hovering over the both of us with an odd expression on her face. Dare I think that AMUSEMENT might be creeping at the corner of her --Miss Stone Statue-- face? No, Kikyou never smiled, not at anything, and certainly not at Inuyasha's misery. 

"I'm not someone who likes to fall flat on his face," Inuyasha mumbled back, his mouth full of rocks. 

"Owowowowow..." 

I sighed, thinking there was nothing else I could say to rectify things. I hoisted Inuyasha up by pulling him under his arms. He winced, as if my slight tug on his arms hurt more than his sudden crashes into the ground. For a split second, he seemed to lean on me for support-- but then he sprang away faster than a jackrabbit, glaring at me intensely.

"Don't touch me."

I was briefly confused, not to mention hurt, as I set my hands to the side. Then I frowned.

"Look, Inuyasha, this isn't my fault, and I'm sorry. It's not like I want to sending you sprawling face first into the ground..."

Inuyasha didn't seem to care for my words much, as he continued to glare at me.

"That last time didn't seem very restrained to me!" He looked me dead on in the eye first, and then "harrumphed" away in another direction, rising to his feet completely.

"Hey! I said I was sorry..." I said as I rose as well, with my hands on my hips.

"'Sorry' doesn't cut it," he spat at me, eyes so narrow his glare could have easily been labeled 'hateful.' So, whether he knew it or not, that was a stab to the chest. I didn't know why I'd latched onto Inuyasha the way I had -maybe it was a crush, but... anyway, I didn't like the way he was acting toward me.

Every glare, every venom-laced word stung me like a stab to the gut, and I was starting to breathe quicker, finding myself on the verge of tears. And that was bad-- for if I started crying, then I would immediately be labeled as "girlish," and people would suspect the truth. So what other response was there for me to give? Inuyasha was being so damn childish, and I didn't feel like taking his bull anymore.

"Fine!" I bit out, crossing my arms over my chest, and leveling Inuyasha with a fierce glare of my own. Inuyasha turned around suddenly, his eyebrows raised in surprise. I guess he hadn't expected me to bite back at him-- hadn't expected me to be angry. What did he expect then? Me to grovel and apologize at his feet? He'd just said 'sorry' wouldn't cut it, so if that was what he was hoping for, he sure as heck wouldn't get it.

After all, I'm a Higurashi, and Higurashis DO NOT BEG.

"Be like a stupid junior high kid. Even my brother is more mature than you!" I was tempted to stick my tongue out at him, but that would make me a hypocrite-- about as mature as a junior high or elementary school kid, resorting to name-calling and making faces.

Inuyasha looked downright astounded -as did the rest of our present company. Did they ALL think I was going to lower myself to the level of an earthworm and actually beg for Inuyasha's forgiveness? Was that what everyone else did when they got on his bad side? How... sad.

I shot them all a disgusted look and continued marching off in the direction Inuyasha had just been stomping in-- only now, they were all frozen in place, in a broken circle. I could feel their eyes boring into my backside as I walked off, not looking back.

_'Fine, be that way.'_

Not long after, they started walking again, shrugging off what had just happened and continuing to explore the festival. Inuyasha, of course, kept his distance behind me, but walked no closer to anyone else. I was pretty sure that everyone was quite wary of my --no, OUR, since Inuyasha was likely still steamed himself-- tempers.

After a few minutes of stiff-legged, straight-faced "marching" --it couldn't be called walking, really-- I bothered to glance over my shoulder. Inuyasha was walking in a slouch, an angry pout plastered over his face-- and he was walking further behind than anyone else. He clearly didn't want sympathy --or teasing-- from anyone else, if his posture said anything about the matter. The others seemed to keep to themselves, Miroku and Sango quietly making conversation, Kouga remaining silent beside Eiji, while he and Kikyou stood silent on the outskirts of the group.

I turned back around, wondering if it would be plausible to just wander off on my own. This was **not** what I'd envisioned for a fun time at the Welcoming festival. I mean, here it was, beginning of spring, and things were already lousy.

I was busy grumbling to myself when I heard Sango's voice pipe up, with an unusually high tone to it. Still, when I turned to face her, her expression was almost determined.

Our mindless walking hadn't gotten anybody anywhere-- everyone was still following me, and Inuyasha was still sulking behind the middle group.

"Hey! Miroku! It's the Ferris Wheel Kagome got all excited about!" Sango yanked Miroku --hard, by the looks of it-- while she tugged him towards the ride-- and even I wasn't oblivious to the flush that suddenly crossed Sango's cheeks. Miroku, for his part, had a priceless expression on his face. You just knew that if his left arm hadn't been restrained by Sango, he would have chugged his arms up and down saying "YEAAAH!"

"That sounds like a great idea!" Eiji agreed, sounding almost... cheerful. Eiji hadn't struck me as the "devious" type-- but then this sly grin appeared on his face as he exchanged glances with the others, and then...

Eiji forcefully grabbed my right wrist, using his other arm to yank Inuyasha forward. For a fifteen-year-old boy who played catcher, he sure had a lot of arm strength to him.

"Hey. You two, grab a seat on the ride," Eiji's grin was purposefully fake, letting the two of us know that much demise awaited us if we so much as **shook** our heads 'no'.

I stared at Eiji, then sighed, shrugging.

_'Well, at least it would be doing something_,' I thought to myself.

Inuyasha only glared at me as if I was to blame for this new 'predicament,' and in unison, we both turned around and started walking towards the Ferris wheel.

"Man, they act like an old married couple..." Eiji muttered before I was completely out of earshot. I was sure Inuyasha heard it as well, though he didn't blush as I did. I turned around and shot Eiji a glare, but he simply smiled back at me.

"HEY!" I heard Kikyou protest. I turned around to see her tugging on Kouga's arm, as he was restraining her from leaping forward and going with Inuyasha on the ride. This only served to confuse me more, as it didn't **seem** as though everyone knew what gender I really was --so why were they setting us up like this? And why was Kikyou getting so jealous?

"I wanted to go with Inuyasha!" Kikyou said succinctly, fixing me with a 'look' that could only say she didn't trust me one stinking bit. And me? Well, I didn't care much. Why was she jealous of me anyway? I mean, the male me, not the female me, but it's not like Inuyasha would ever find that out...

"Hey, Kikyou," Kouga hissed. Kikyou flinched at how Kouga referred to her so flippantly, as did Inuyasha (we'd both stopped to listen), though we were only a few feet from the ride's entrance. Surprisingly, there were only a few people in line.

"We need Kagome on the team! If Inuyasha doesn't like him, then..." Obviously Miroku --or maybe Eiji, since he had been the one to set this all up-- had told them about my love of baseball. Either that or they simply needed the players regardless-- I wondered just what state the team was in. After all, we hadn't practiced a bit since school had started the other day, and while most other schools were excitedly discussing the National Championships, we... weren't.

Kikyou relaxed a little bit, but I remained tense. So that was it, then? The only reason they wanted me to get along with Inuyasha was so they could have a new player on their team? Yeah, that was what friends were for. Of course, I had a lot to learn back then, but I was being irrational, and jumping to conclusions.

"Well, if that's why..." Kikyou trailed off, then paused. "Get your arm off me!" She violently shook Kouga's arm from hers, shooting him a glare worthy of melting steel.

"Sorry, sorry! Anyway, that's not just why. Hey, Kagome seems like a nice guy, but if he and Inuyasha can't get along..." That made me feel a little bit better, but not much. After all, I still didn't have Inuyasha's take on the whole matter. He hadn't exactly been jumping at the chance to talk to me, let alone forgive me for something that wasn't even my fault!

Inuyasha and I both started walking again, the line quickly moving as the Ferris Wheel chugged out more passengers, and more started to get on, filling in the gap between Inuyasha and myself from the side.

The way Kouga had trailed off caused my breath to catch in my throat-- would Inuyasha really start to hate me because of this? If that was so, then why was he still walking with me towards the ride?

"Just so you know," Inuyasha growled out as we stopped near the operator, his voice still laced with obvious anger, "I'm not talking to you."

My left eye twitched as rage started to boil in the pits of my stomach once more.

_'Ugh! Of all the immature, stupid, childish things to say! Why do the cute ones always have to be so damn brainless!' _I was steaming in my thoughts by the time Inuyasha and I reached the front of the line, and we must have made quite the couple to the operator.

"Good, I didn't want to talk to you either," I retorted a few moments later. Okay, so I was being just as immature as he was, but you know what? Who cares? The dummy deserved it.

The two of us wore identical masks of disgust for one another as we approached the Ferris Wheel. He merely blinked as we handed him two rows of four tickets-- though we hadn't paid for them. The school was privately owned and run, and as such, could afford every possibly frivolity-- and that included Ferris Wheels at its festivals. I suppose it was a good thing, considering we didn't need to pay for anything. Or maybe it was all included in the tuition package? Boring details, anyhow.

Inuyasha and I continued to ignore each other as we waited for an empty carriage to stop on our level. Once it did, we both tried to shove in at once-- resulting in a painful squish and a sight which had to be amusing to --oh, EVERYONE! By the time the both of us got seated across from one another, a lower classman --she couldn't have been in the 11th grade-- popped her bubblegum, glancing up from her EGG magazine and slamming the metal door shut. The carriage shuddered as it moved up a level, letting the next couple board.

Needless to say, Inuyasha and I were sitting as far away from each other as we could. Opposite sides of the carriage, opposite sides of the seat. We both had our gazes locked in opposite directions; I fixated my gaze on a couple of children, leaning against the rail that bordered the line area and were watching the people on the ride, while Inuyasha -not that I'd been looking at him, I swear!- was staring at the sky with a sort of determined expression. As if he was determined to ignore me, even though every couple of seconds, he'd move slightly, maybe even open his mouth (like I said, I **wasn't** looking) as if he was going to ask me something. But he never did.

The ride slowly started to move at a faster pace, as all the passengers had since been boarded. The children I'd been keeping my eyes trained on got further and further away, until finally the metal bars of the ride -not to mention the grates on the windows and doors- kept me from looking at them. I gulped suddenly, swallowing a lump in my throat that I hadn't known was there.

A million thoughts started to race through my head, and one of them was the undeniable sensation of... flying.

Like I was watching something from up close, and everything was normal sized and as it should be, trees and people, and... just everything was normal, and it felt safe. But there was a sudden **need **to go up, to get away, to... get something? Save someone?

And then I was up in the air, flying on SOMETHING, but I couldn't bring myself to look down and check. I was getting higher and higher, suddenly springing towards the ground, only to bound back up again, this time higher than before. And there were birds in the sky, some almost close enough to touch-- but there was something else.

A sense of fear.

I was gripping onto whatever was holding me up in the air like this-- holding it like a lifeline. And then, as if someone other than myself controlled my body, I was letting go, leaping off, falling towards rocks and a raging river, all because there was something --I couldn't make out exactly what- that I had to go after, that I had to save... but from what? Or... from who?

I blinked, and then the daydream vanished into darkness. And I was back in the Ferris Wheel, and it was uncomfortably silent, save for the creaking of the carriage and the sounds of the festival below. But I was still filled with that same fear that I'd had just a moment before-- like the world was going to blank out underneath me, and I'd keep falling...

What did it mean? I was trying to come up with a plausible explanation for all the craziness I'd been seeing, hearing, and feeling today, but was forcefully jerked from my thoughts when our carriage jerked to a stop at the very top. I practically doubled forward, thankfully landing on the seat opposite Inuyasha, instead of in his arms.

I was terrified, and it probably showed on my face. Inuyasha tore his gaze away from the oh-so-fascinating sky for a moment to observe me-- and what I sight I must have made! I was starting to squeeze my eyes shut as I sat back down again, gripping onto the two handles beside the doors. My grip was so hard my knuckles whitened, and my breathing became short and raspy.

This was unlike anything else I'd ever experienced before. I was so scared, and I couldn't stop --couldn't stop hyperventilating, couldn't stop gripping the handles like lifelines, couldn't stop closing my eyes. Somehow, complete darkness was sweeter than a world where peripheral vision existed.

Despite my silent chants that I would be safe, I would be fine, I kept imagining the old, steel bolts that kept our seat attached to the bars squeaking their way out of their holes... and then releasing our carriage as we plummeted to the ground. Silly, I know, but when you're so terrified of something, you begin to imagine things that just wouldn't naturally happen.

It's like when you're on a ski lift, going to the top of a mountain. Let's say you're scared of heights, so you commence looking up, figuring that it's better than looking down. However, the moment you look up, the first thing you notice is that unreliable cable being the only thing separating you from a nasty fall into the snow, or a rocky mountain, or simply a fifty meter drop! Then you start analyzing how much the seat plus you and maybe one or two other people weigh. Then you start thinking about how there are so many other chairs are there, and how much they all weigh, added together. You start freaking yourself out even more, but before you can have a complete mental breakdown, the lift ends and you get off, snow boarding or skiing down the slope, only to repeat the ski lift process again.

Or maybe that's just me.

This whole imagination thing was getting out of hand, so maybe it was better to keep my eyes open. But when I finally did open them, Inuyasha had switched positions so he was now sitting right in front of me, leaning forward and smirking devilishly.

"You're afraid of heights, aren't you?" The ever-psychic Inuyasha questioned, though his voice had closed the sentence more like a statement.

"No! Yes! I... Hell, I don't know. What's it to you, anyway?" I fumbled out. This was the first time that I'd ever gotten this sort of sensation before-- or at least, the first time that I could remember. And seeing things when I closed my eyes --whether it was diving after something I couldn't see, or bolts coming loose from their bearings-- wasn't helping me **at all**.

"Why are you afraid of heights?" Inuyasha asked, completely ignoring the fact that I'd just **denied** being afraid. And I wasn't afraid-- or at least, I never had been before. I always loved plane rides, always enjoyed rollercoasters and hiking on mountains...

Inuyasha, of course, completely ignored my question, so I shot him a bland look to remind him of his indiscretion. He didn't get the message.

"I have my reasons."

_'Yes, and those reasons are... inexplicable. Something to do with a flying carpet and a falling Something-or-Other.'_

Inuyasha snorted, then looked back towards the sky again.

"There's more accidents that happen on the ground than happen in the air, you know" I detected the faintest hint of a smile creeping up the corners of his mouth, though for whatever reason, I couldn't tell.

"Air accidents are more terrifying," I shot back, leaning forward, my grip on the handles loosening considerably. When I finally pulled my hands away, the palms were red and covered in sweat. It still baffled me that I could be so terrified of something that hadn't even **irked** me before.

"If you die, you die." Inuyasha said simply. I blinked, trying to comprehend that. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. But he'd sounded so callous, so insensitive, so cruel-- and that, in turn, led to me wondering what was going on with him. Why was Inuyasha... Inuyasha?

"Besides," Inuyasha continued, completely ruining any chance he had at calming me. "You die during the fall, most of the time. Your neck snaps due to the..." My eyes widened to the size of saucers, I could just **feel** it, and I snapped my other hand off the bar, fisting them at my sides.

"Oh, THANKS!" I interrupted him. My tension was increasing by tenfold now, and not knowing where this fear came from just made matters worse. Inuyasha being, well, Inuyasha, snickered. After a few minutes and a few slow revolutions of the Wheel, the tension and fear floated away.

Inuyasha was grinning smugly, and I relaxed slightly-- it didn't seem as though he was angry anymore, and that was a good thing. But that was most likely because he had something on me that he could abuse whenever he damn well felt like it-- he knew I was at least partially afraid of heights. Or something.

Inuyasha's gaze wasn't fixed on the sky anymore, but at me-- he kept grinning and smirking in his usual way, but this time, my heart pounded in my chest. What an unusual sensation that was, I remembered thinking... Like I was falling again, but this time... I wasn't so scared anymore.

Inuyasha, the dumb jerk, was worming his way into my affections already.

* * *

Kagome and Inuyasha exited the Ferris Wheel not long afterwards, about to search for their friends-- namely Eiji, so they could pummel him to the ground. Kagome, for her part, didn't seek to pummel Eiji so much as hug him for forcing her into the whole situation-- in a completely male-bonding, brotherly way, that is. But before she got the chance to find him, she was stopped in her tracks by something she saw only a short distance away.

That something was, more accurately speaking, a certain someone. And that certain someone was Souta, walking side by side with a young girl, maybe 11 or 12 years old. She was probably someone Souta knew back from the elementary school, still in grade 6, or maybe she was a classmate of his at the junior high. But whoever she was, the two of them were sneaking glances at each other, almost furtively, whenever they thought the other wasn't looking. Kagome thought it was downright adorable.

Inuyasha returned to Kagome's side, this time surrounded by the others, who had amused themselves while Inuyasha and Kagome were on the Wheel by playing games. Sango was now the reluctant new owner of a floppy, stuffed ostrich plush. Miroku, by the looks of his grin, was the one who'd won it for her, but Sango looked less than enthralled holding the feathery thing. It wasn't her type of thing, really...

Inuyasha was reaching out to get Kagome's attention, but she suddenly leaned forward and called out in a loud voice, "HEY, SOUUUTA!" startling Inuyasha and many of the other people in the surrounding area. Souta nearly jumped a meter high, stumbling so he dropped several kernels of popcorn to the ground. He apologized profusely to his companion as Kagome and her friends approached, Kagome grinning widely.

"Who's you're little girlfriend?" She smirked, winking at the young girl. The spritely girl had a shock of dark brown hair, the top layer pulled up into a small ponytail that seemed to explode on the top of her head. It was certainly an original style, but she looked cute wearing it.

Souta instantly blushed-- and, as Kagome noted, so did the girl by his side. Her grin grew wider as she winked at Souta, who blushed an even deeper crimson.

"Kagome!" Souta shouted, reaching up to rub one of his cheeks to try to banish the redness.

"Haven't you ever heard of discriction?" Kagome chuckled at this, correcting Souta's mistake.

"It's discretion, Souta-chan, but... I was right, wasn't I?"

Souta's face reddened further, and he fisted his hands at his sides, about ready to whack Kagome in the knees. And he probably would have-- had they not been in a public place, surrounded by lots of people, especially his upperclassmen. Souta **had** said that Inuyasha and his friends were some of the most popular students in the senior high school, and to Kagome, that had sounded like they were respected by the underclassmen as well. So the younger boy probably wouldn't do anything to damage his image in their eyes.

Souta motioned the girl at his side to come closer, as she'd taken a step backwards when I'd approached. She was flanked by two other people-- a short boy with reddish hair, and another girl with black hair, who was about as tall as a beanstalk, nearly towering over Souta and the girl with him.

"Well?" Kagome inquired, tapping her foot on the ground, "Aren't you going to introduce us?"

"Rin, this is my stupid older si—brother, Kagome." Thankfully, Souta caught his slip before his friends did, so there was no harm done. Kagome swallowed, peering behind her nervously to make sure Inuyasha and the others hadn't heard Souta's stumble.

"Kagome, this is Rin, my **friend**." His emphasis on 'friend' was heavy, intending to get a point across to Kagome, but she just continued to smirk.

"And these are Shippo and Satsuki, my other friends." He indicated the boy -Shippo- and the girl -Satsuki- with a gesture of his hands. Kagome seemed almost transfixed by Shippo for a moment, thinking him awfully familiar. But why shouldn't he be? She amended herself a moment later. Souta used to bring his friends home with him every now and then-- maybe he'd been one of the boys Souta had had over.

But if that was so, then...

Kagome swallowed, hoping Shippo didn't know her for who she really was. Or if he did-- he'd keep his mouth shut.

Kagome's smirk grew wider as a plan formed in her head-- matchmaking was something she enjoyed, and the affection between Souta and this 'Rin' girl was apparent. She was cute, with a seemingly effervescent smile permanently attached to her face. Apparently, Souta got wind of Kagome's sneaky thoughts and started to back away-- right into Miroku.

"Hey, Kagome, who's the kid?" Miroku grinned looking down at Souta. Souta stared back up at Miroku, his eyes widening for a moment before he stumbled off, facing Miroku and the others in a circle, his friends gathered to his side, with Kagome off to the right.

Miroku kept grinning broadly at Souta and his friends. Kagome found it amusing that Souta looked more and more uncomfortable by the minute, while his friends seemed to grow all the more interested.

"Is this your brother you were telling us about?" Miroku asked, kneeling down to be eye level with Souta. Kagome nodded an affirmative, to which Souta shot Kagome a terrified glance.

_'What have you **told** them!' _his eyes asked frantically. Kagome frowned slightly, and made a tsching sound with her tongue in cheek, trying to tell Souta that there was nothing to worry about.

Souta's friends for their part, looked confused now, and it was Shippo who stepped forward, looking hesitantly between Kagome and his friend.

"Hey," Shippo said with a slight frown,"you never told us you had a brother, just about your older sister"

Instant attention suddenly came from a certain boy whose name started with M and ended with I-R-O-K-U.

"Higurashi, you've been holding back on us!"

He was immediately at Kagome's side, having leapt up from his position on the ground in a split second. His expression revealed his high interest in the topic, continuing to pester Kagome with questions that she looked all too-uncomfortable to answer. Souta glanced up at his sister, who visibly gulped, now caught in a bind.

"You never told us you had a sister! Is she younger than you? Older? Is she cute? Available?"

"A little desperate, Miroku?" Kagome asked, grinning slightly while she attempted to maneuver away from him.

_'Great. How did I get myself into these messes again? Oh yeah, I listen to my stupid grandpa. And I have a younger brother who puts his foot in his mouth deeper than I do.'_

"Ah-- uhm yeah I have a much older sister who's already married with two children and lives in Texas!" Kagome shot out quickly, her eyes darting all over the place. If Miroku believed that load of horse manure, he would believe ANYTHING, Kagome thought. But she had to get off of this topic, and FAST.

Souta dropped his head in his hands, likely thinking about the same things as Kagome: what on Earth was his sister getting herself into?

"Really?" Rin asked, smiling more. "Souta never told us about her, just that he had a sister who was a first-year in high school"

Kagome gulped again, this time the feeling bringing an acidic feeling to her throat. It wasn't just Miroku listening in, she realized with a gulp --Inuyasha, Kouga, Kikyou, Sango, Eiji-- they'd all heard everything, and Souta had gotten **technical** with his friends and told them...!

Miroku's look once again became re interested, and the glances he was giving Kagome as he stalked back towards her made her all the more uneasy. For her part, she kept glancing at Sango, who frowned slightly and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Oh! You mean uh Kekki! She's m-my twin sister!" Beads of sweat began to appear on Kagome's brow as she prattled off, finally backing herself up against the side of the Fun-House they were near.

_'There is no way anyone is going to believe **that** story. I'm getting worse than Grandpa' _

However, Souta was doing a magnificent job at playing along. He nodded vigorously to everything Kagome said, despite the somewhat panicked expression on his face.

Kagome could almost hear what he would say to her later. _'Good job, Kagome! Digging yourself even deeper, and dragging me along with you!' _

So the two put on their identical 'believe-me-I'm-innocent' looks on their faces, directing two, heart-melting smiles at their friends.

"Well!" Miroku said, completely buying every word. "When can I --I mean, **we**-- meet her?" He grinned, rubbing his hands together delightedly.

Kagome literally fell over.

* * *

Many hours later, when the festival had ended and the group of high school friends returned to their dorms, an interesting thing happened.

The day had pretty much worn out -if not **stressed** out- Kagome, so, upon returning to her dorm room and finding it suitably empty, she decided to take a shower. All that sweating hadn't done her any good anyway, and this was an opportune time as any to clean herself off-- after all, Hojo wasn't there to interrupt her.

Kagome heaved a sigh of relief, dropping off her small bag of goodies -which consisted of a stuffed white dog plushie, a plastic bow and arrow with a suction cup on the arrow head, and a small bag of candy- onto the floor. She didn't bother to lock the door, knowing Hojo would be coming back from the festival eventually-- but that would be the last time she forgot something so simple.

Kagome shucked off her baggy jeans and sweater, then the loose t-shirt below it. Finally, she spent a good five minutes unwinding the binding around her breasts that kept her "flat-chested" during her days at school. She removed it at night, as she hated the constricting feeling the strips gave her, but was always careful to cover herself up before Hojo saw in the evening, or the early morning hours.

However, with all that had happened that day, Kagome was more than distracted, and was completely unaware when, nearing the end of her shower, the door to her room opened, and someone stepped inside.

Kagome turned off the water in the shower and proceeded to dry her hair with the single towel she had to her name in the bathroom when the door burst open, and Miroku -of ALL people- barreled in, exclaiming, "Hey, Kagome, so when are you going to..." His eyes widened, taking in Kagome's decidedly FEMALE figure.

"To..." His eyes shifted upwards, at which point a growing-steadily-redder Kagome eeped, covering her body with the towel. It slipped somewhat, but still covered her torso, from her breasts down to her thighs.

Miroku made a slight noise --it almost sounded like a squeak, or maybe a yelp-- before Kagome shrieked, slamming the door shut forcefully. She leaned on it heavily for a few moments, almost thinking that Miroku would try to barge in, even though he'd been the one to zip out of the steaming room before Kagome slammed the door.

Her breathing slowed after a few moments, and silence reigned throughout the room. She turned slowly, one palm pressed flat on the door, the other hovering, trembling almost, near the doorknob.

"Miroku? Are you still there?" She swallowed hard. Miroku had been her best friend thus far, but she hadn't been able to truly trust him. She couldn't bring herself to trust any of them, not yet-- and now, who knew if their friendship would even last the day?

There was silence, and for a moment Kagome was afraid that Miroku had left to spread the news about this new discovery around the entire campus.

After a moment, though, Kagome heard someone shifting around.

"Yeah. Kagome." He sighed deeply, folding his hands, "You have a lot of explaining to do."

Kagome gulped. Explanations, obviously, weren't her strong point, and things were made worse by the fact that Miroku, usually sounding so light-hearted and funny, suddenly sounded dead serious.

"Y-yeah. Uh, lock the door, will you?" Kagome asked, her voice sounding almost wispy. She wondered if she was on the verge of tears, or if it was just residual steam and water stuck to her face. But this, like her experience on the Ferris Wheel, suddenly gave her a feeling of dread.

There was another moment of silence, then the slight sound of someone's steps against the hardwood floor. There was the telltale click of the bedroom door being locked, but Kagome didn't leave the bathroom until she was assured that the door was locked.

"Okay, Kagome." Miroku said, seating himself on the bed once more. He wasn't looking towards the bathroom door; rather, he trained his eyes on the door he'd just closed. This was too much to take, but he couldn't just walk out of the room without listening to what Kagome -if that was HER real name- had to say.

With a shaky hand, Kagome pushed the bathroom door open. Miroku suddenly turned to face herm his expression hard and unfeeling.

"Don't even think about telling me that you're 'Kekki,' coming to visit your damn brother or something, and that you just decided to take a shower because you were feeling dirty. I won't believe it."

Kagome felt like crying-- yes, the emotions were definitely there. Kagome had never heard Miroku so... angry with her. True, she hadn't known him all that long, but... She slowly moved towards the bed, her gaze straying from Miroku, as if that would help prevent tears from sliding down her face. How could she look Miroku in the eye, knowing that any trust she'd developed with him had probably been shattered in a matter of minutes, by a simple mistake?

Kagome sat down heavily on her bed, the springs squeaking underneath her as she flopped down. She was still pale and shaky, her lips trembling and still on the verge of crying. A small voice inside her screamed that she'd catch cold and get sick if she stayed like that, but she didn't care-- she'd been bottling in her 'secret' for long enough, and there was simply no way to get out of this one with deceit.

Kagome dared to glance at Miroku, and she found herself surprised that his expression had softened. He didn't seem as angry as he had been before, but he wasn't looking at her. Whether it was out of decency for her nearly-nude state, or something else, the girl couldn't tell.

"Well," Miroku started, moving slightly down Kagome's bed so he could turn and face her, "this just proves that you really are Kagome, and not Kekki. Or is it the other way around?" His gaze was analytical, but not lecherous in any way. He noted that Kagome was shivering, not to mention soaking the comforter underneath her. He sighed.

"Put something on that's more than a towel before you explain things. But hurry." He raked a hand through his uneven brown locks, his gaze averted from Kagome as she quickly stood up, still clutching her towel with one hand. She glanced back at him once more before she closed the bathroom door, this time for long enough to dry herself off completely.

Kagome lingered in the bathroom longer than necessary, even after she'd dried her hair --however short it was-- and put on some clothes. She was not in any huge rush to face Miroku and his cold, accusing glare. Worse, since she had no 'female' clothing at the school, she would have to go back out there looking like... like someone she wasn't. Like someone Miroku **knew** she wasn't...

After a few minutes of battling with her conscience, Kagome hesitantly opened the door and stepped outside.

Miroku glanced up from his place on the end of the bed, his expression expectant. His hands were on either side of his legs, trying to offer support. Kagome flinched at the sight of this, but sat down all the same, this time, further away from Miroku.

"I really am Kagome Higurashi," Kagome began, after a few moments of silence. Miroku's expression remained blank, but he leaned over a little further to hear the girl better, as she was being quite soft-spoken.

"I'm attending this school because my brother --my real brother, Souta-- was being beaten almost every day at his school. Grandpa decided that I would be his 'protector,' but I could only do that by attending the same school as him. That is, Yumegaru Shiritsu Gakkou."

Kagome stopped. There wasn't much more she could tell him, she thought, not anymore that **she** herself understood anyhow. She did feel that déjà vu around almost everybody, and there were those weird goings-on at the festival-- but other than that...

After a few moments of thoughtful silence, Miroku spoke again.

"Why the hell didn't you tell us, then? I mean, we would have obviously accepted you." His glance turned to the window, as did Kagome's. The shades were drawn.

_'I closed the shades... but I forget to lock the door? How stupid am I?'_

"And why didn't you just go to the girls' school?" Miroku asked, turning back to face Kagome. She wanted to bury her face in her hands now. His tone had taken an edge to it, and she felt horribly stupid for letting this happen. But part of her, deep inside, wanted it. At least it had been Miroku, she thought to herself, and not someone else--

_'Someone like... Inuyasha?_' The very idea scared her. It could have been Inuyasha-- or maybe Hojo. Or perhaps a complete stranger, like Eiji, who she barely knew at all...

"I didn't know the girls' school existed!" Kagome bit out, a little vehemently. Miroku's attention was automatically drawn back to Kagome's face, realizing with sudden dismay that his 'best guy friend' was actually a girl on the verge of angry tears.

"Look, there's just plenty of reasons why I didn't tell you guys. Oh, here, let me just give you one through a million." Kagome found herself unreasonably angry, chastising herself mentally for getting so worked up. While half of her argued that the situation could have been much worse, she was still humiliated, and strangely afraid.

_'I don't want Miroku to hate me! I don't want him to tell the others, and I don't want to be going crazy because of everything I've been seeing! I want-- I want a friend!' _

"One, you guys would have treated me like a girl if you knew." Kagome continued, forcing her thoughts down, "If we were playing sports, you'd treat me like glass, instead of tackling me, and letting me get into the game! You wouldn't treat me the same as any one of the other guys! That'd look good, wouldn't it? People would **really** think I was some macho boy or something."

Kagome abruptly stood up, beginning to pace about the room. She knew she was rambling at this point, but she didn't care, as she wanted to get all of this out NOW when she had the chance.

"Two, I didn't know if I could trust you guys. Sure, now you're all my best friends, but won't that be even worse? I suddenly flat out tell you guys that I'm a chick, and bam! You all feel betrayed and pissed, and hate me. Cause and effect."

"Kagome" Miroku started, shifting slightly, But Kagome didn't give him the chance to say anything.

"Three, I really**really**REALLY want to be on the baseball team. Not just some stupid softball team or something, and if Inuyasha or any of you guys knew, then my chance on being on the team would automatically ZERO. Like it or not, sexism is _still_ a factor here."

Kagome stopped again, trying to think of more reasons. She shook violently, looking at everything in the room as if it were part of a distant dimension.

"Four four well, I was just scared, all right?" She finally met Miroku's gaze dead on, and he looked into the brown depths, seeing only darkness and the wavering of tears. She meant every word she said, and Miroku knew it-- knew it without questioning, knew it because Kagome really wasn't the type to lie if she didn't have to.

Uncomfortable silence filtered in-- the kind that made the two of them fidget in order to compensate for the awkward feeling surrounding them both.

Kagome moved back to the bed, sitting back down on it. Her speech had taken quite a lot of energy out of her, as her shower had ended on an abrupt note that hadn't completely relaxed her the way she'd hoped.

"I mean, what if one of you guys decided that this needed to be taken to the teachers? Where would I be then? And then what would happen to my brother? Oh yeah, that'd be great for his reputation. He needed his cross-dressing sister to protect him. I'd probably be permanently labeled as 'uber-dyke,' then kicked out of the school."

Kagome gave Miroku and his curious expression a half-hearted glare. He seemed to be on the verge of asking something, but Kagome knew what was on the tip of his tongue, and spoke first.

"And I am straight, thankyouverymuch."

Miroku was silent again, this time stroking his chin thoughtfully. Kagome dropped her gaze to the floor, awaiting judgment. Miroku was one person she didn't want to hate her. Miroku and... well, Inuyasha. She didn't know why she had such feelings towards them, such immediate trust and -worry?- but she wanted to be accepted by them, despite their extreme differences.

"Kagome" Miroku started again, then heaved a great sigh.

"Look, Kagome, I'm not mad, alright? I was just a bit surprised. Give me some credit, okay?" He ran his fingers through his hair, rising to his feet.

"I mean, it isn't every day you walk into one of your best friend's bathroom and find out that he is really a she."

I nodded slowly.

"Does anyone else know, or is it just me?"

"Just you," Kagome whispered. "You and my brother, of course." Miroku flopped back down on the bed. Of course he was the only one in the high school to know-- he'd found out so suddenly, and completely by accident. And after all she'd finally gotten off her chest -so to speak- it was highly unlikely that she would have been so stressed, had anyone else known.

Maybe it would have been easier, telling someone like Sango, another female, someone who might understand. But... she hadn't. She couldn't, still, for reasons still unfathomable to Kagome. And now, Miroku knew.

He scooted to Kagome's side of the bed, suddenly petting her on the head in an almost affectionate manner. Perhaps he realized, sitting that much closer to Kagome, just how much smaller and slimmer her frame was in contrast to his.

"Hey," Kagome asked, after a few moments. Her voice wavered ever-so-slightly, a tinge of fear coloring her voice. "You don't hate me, do you?" She swallowed hard again, her eyes shifting quickly from where Miroku's hand almost touched hers, back up to his face, to see what he would say.

"Nah. You have a good enough reason for me not to. Sorry for getting all offended, I was just surprised." He smiled down at her, suddenly squeezing her hand in his own. The slight gesture sent ripples running down both their spines and they dared to look at one another.

"Th--there's something else, isn't there?" Miroku whispered suddenly, his hand not letting go of Kagome's. She gulped, nodding slowly, her gaze not wandering from his face.

"You felt it too?" Kagome asked, slowly removing her hand from his grasp. Could it be the reason why she felt so familiar around Miroku-- did he know? He didn't act like he'd seen the hairs back at Yura's performance, but maybe...

"Somehow, I feel like I've known you... for a long time." Miroku said. He quickly glanced away, running his hands through his hair again. He let out a nervous chuckle as he muttered, "But that's crazy, I mean, we just met a couple of days ago."

"Me too," Kagome breathed. Miroku met her gaze again, and a sort of reverie fell between the two before Kagome abruptly snapped out of the moment, back to her current predicament.

"Sorry for not telling you, Miroku, but yeah." Kagome glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

"You're not going to tell Inuyasha, are you?"

"Although I think I should, I'll leave that up to you. Why are you so against telling Inuyasha?" Miroku asked, curiosity plain in his voice.

Kagome looked away, down, anywhere but in Miroku's eyes. She held a respect for the guy, even if they'd "just met" and he'd just found her out. Whatever the case was, she couldn't bring herself to tell Miroku about the strange feelings she had around --for...?-- Inuyasha. That was, if he didn't already know.

_'Because he'll hate me.'_

"Because I want to be on the team." Kagome answered, pushing any thoughts of Inuyasha --and that damned irritating grin of his, however charming it may have been back at the festival-- down, back, and far away..

"All right. One more question." Miroku smirked.

Kagome turned to look at Miroku fully. "Yeah?"

"Can we go out?"

Kagome flopped onto the bed, throwing her pillow at Miroku.

* * *

Sigmund Freud, an amazingly brilliant man, studied the unconscious mind because he believed that dreams and thoughts hidden in the deep recesses of our brains affected our everyday life. He believed that if those dreams and those thoughts were brought to the surface of one's unconsciousness, one might be able to control the undesirable actions that are displayed as a result of those hidden thoughts. He examined, studied, tested, concluded, and was inevitably proven right.

Kagome was able to study his practices that night, right when she fell asleep.

As soon as she closed her eyes, she started to have one of the eeriest dreams of her life. Kagome didn't normally dream, or at least dream anything that she **remembered**,which is why she often awoke, feeling refreshed and ready to tackle a new day.

When someone dreams vividly during the night, they tend to wake up more often then someone who does not dream so vividly, thus remembering the dream they had the night before.

Kagome didn't know what was going on as she dreamt, but she did know that she remembered it vividly when she awoke.

Hairs, crisscrossing left and right, up and down, going in every possible direction.

Kagome felt oddly heavy. She looked around her, suddenly realizing she was in a dark place, with cold, wet soil for ground. She had a strange, heavy garment draped about her head and shoulders-- and something long and soft brushing against her shoulder blades.

_'My hair! My long hair, it's-- it's back!'_

But before Kagome could make any more observations, she was pitched downward, as the intricate web of hair -gleaming and dancing in a sourceless light- collapsed in on itself, sending the girl plunging towards darkness. Skulls smeared with blood began to fall with her, causing Kagome to scream-- but before she could fall any further, two 'ropes' of hair shot down from the upper level, snaking about the girl's cloth-covered wrists.

She didn't feel a thing.

"What are you? Why aren't you maimed!" Kagome looked up, recognizing the voice instantly.

_'Yura!' _

Indeed, Yura hovered only a few feet above Kagome, clad in the same black, skimpy outfit that she'd worn at the festival. Her eyes glowed an inhuman red, narrowing as the hairs tightened around Kagome's wrists. She drew a sword from her side, making to plunge it through Kagome's neck-- she was even bending down on the ground, dirt spilling into Kagome's shirt...

_ This will be my revenge! _Yura's voice cackled in the recesses of Kagome's mind. But right before cold steel met warm flesh, Kagome bolted awake, cool sweat gleaming on her brow. Her heart was pounding, and something sharp was digging into her wrist, cutting off circulation to her hand, making it numb.

There was a single, strand of hair tied around Kagome's wrist, much like a bracelet.

Kagome stared at it in horror, as her heart thundered against her ribcage.

_'This... this can't be!' _

* * *

**NOTES:**

(1)As Clara stated in SD, Inuyasha called Kagome a "bitch" just because. And it's ironic when a guy calls a girl in disguise as a guy a bitch... ah, yeah, you get it, though, right?

(2) Heheheehehe... Clara and I have some great stuff cookin' up for you in future chapters. We're so evil! glance So anyway, keep reading both SD and DD, and be sure to review and let us know how we're doing!

(3) Okay, so here's what I came up with in terms of ages/grades (according to the Japanese system!):

**GRADE / AGE**

**HIGH SCHOOL  
**12 ... 17-18 (Kikyou's age/grade)  
11 ... 16-17 (Kagome and Co.'s grade)  
10 ... 15-16

**  
MIDDLE SCHOOL  
**9 ... 14-15 (Kagome's REAL age/grade)  
8 ... 13-14 (Souta's grade; however, he's 12 in this fic because he skipped a grade)  
7 ,... 12-13

**ELEMENTARY SCHOOL  
**6 ,... 11-12  
5 ... 10-11  
4 ... 9-10**  
**3 ... 8-9 (Souta's REAL age/grade)**  
... etc.**

So, in case you haven't already noticed, Kagome, Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku are all roughly 16 or 17 years of age. Kikyou is a year older than everyone else, and is 17 going on 18, and... well, everyone else you'll meet, you'll find out. Eiji is 15. Souta is SUPPOSED to be 8 years old, but in this, he's 12 and a half-- younger than all his classmates, and hence one of the reasons he gets beat up.

Hope that clears some of THAT up.

**THANK YOUs:**

(1) Thanks to all the following people kind enough to review Dream a Dream! I'm glad you guys are enjoying it! Fallon (again!), PrincessRoze3, Aejavu, Sashlea, Subaruu0584, Queen Ali B, M-python-girl, inu-yasha-4ever89, Leina, and of course, Clara!

(2) To the following reviewers who asked questions/had weird comments-- here are the answers/my questions:  
**JulianaBT18** - is "kinda weird" a good thing or a bad thing?  
**jadedragon** - SUGAR!  
**Queenofserinity** - For the most part, this is an Inuyasha/Kagome fic... but obviously since Inuyasha thinks "Kagome" is a boy, well... you'll see. Just keep reading. And no, the dreams Kagome has are NOT, unlike in SD, from a previous life. This is a non-AU fic. Again, wait and see, you'll know what I mean.  
**Hanyou Queen** - OMG! You rule! Thank you for reviewing so many of my fics! I'm so happy and flattered, and... continues to babble

I hope you liked-- let me know what you think! I managed to finish this up in a few days! Yay me!

_See you next chapter!_ _Azurite_


	5. Here's Lookin' At You, Kid

**Dream A Dream  
Chapter 5:** Here's Lookin' At You, Kid  
**Version 1.1 - **Spelling Revisions, no more Fangirl Japanese (4/24/05)  
**An _Inuyasha_ Fanfiction  
By:** Azurite - azurite AT fanfiction DOT net  
**Rated:** PG-13 

Okay, I'm trying to keep this short and simple, so you can get right to the story. 

(1) Doujinfic. Got Clara's Permission. My Plot. No Stealing.  
(2) I No Own Inuyasha. Takahashi Own Inuyasha. Takahashi Rules.  
(3) Notes/Thank-Yous At Bottom!  
(4) Am Trying VERY HARD to have original chapter titles. Currently not succeeding all that much...  
(5) Sticking to Japanese school calendar, Japanese names, etc. Same goes for Japanese sports season. )  
(6) This chapter title comes from the movie _Casablanca_. Go watch it. D  
(7)** This whole fic is in the process of being revised-- no more 1st person POV! It'll all be 3rd person! **

Oh, and of course, go check out Clara's website hopefully she'll update SD there first  
http/ 

"like, this is speech"  
_and these are thoughts  
_**and these words are EMPHASIZED!**

**SLIGHT RECAP:** Kagome is your ordinary highschool girl-- that is, until she's sent to her brother's private school on the other end of town to be his keeper-- but there's just one problem: Souta goes to an all-boy's school! Kagome gives up her feminity and pretends to be a boy, but it gets her in a lot of hot water and sticky situations. For starters, now her best guy friend, Miroku, knows! Worse, Kagome's been having weird dreams-- and visions, especially surrounding the hypnotist-girl, Yura! Kagome wakes up from a nightmare with Yura in it, only to find a hair that moves of its own accord around her wrist! What's going on here-- how does she know everyone, and what of Souta's predicament? 

**PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! **

* * *

"All that we see or seen  
Is but a dream within a dream."  
--Edgar Allan Poe

* * *

After that nightmare, Kagome wasn't sure she could sleep for the rest of the night. She sat there and heaved for a few moments, while she stared at the hair she'd torn in two, out of sheer desperation. It was just a limp hair, shining in the moonlight like any other piece of dust on the floor. Not gleaming colors, and not slithering like a snake. 

But maybe it would-- the moment Kagome closed her eyes. The moment she touched it, maybe? She knew she had to dispose of it, so she dared to stumble out of bed --luckily Hojo didn't awaken, the boy slept like a log-- and toss the offending hair into the toilet. It made no attempt to jump out of the water and strangle the girl. 

She hadn't been imagining things. A slender red line lay on her wrist, plain as day. If anyone saw it, they'd surely think Kagome had made an attempt on her life. That was, after all, what it was supposed to have been, right? That **thing** -- whatever it was -- wasn't meant to simply cut off the circulation to her arm, it was meant to keep binding her until it sliced clean through my artery. 

Had she not awoken when she did, it might have done just that. 

And... and she would have been a bloody mess in bed. Literally. Hojo would try to awaken her, to no avail. He'd call the dean, the headmaster. The whole floor would wake, and her friends would storm the room. Miroku would hover around the fringes of the crowd, wondering if Kagome had been found out. Headmaster Kaede would pull the blanket off her, and in front of all the guys, in front of all her friends --in front of Souta too, no doubt-- Kagome would be revealed as female, and dead as a doornail. 

Souta would be chastised too, unable to mourn. No one to protect him. And her friends? And Kagome herself...? How strange; she felt a sense of duty, of desire around these people that she just met. 

How foolish to be thinking along those lines! But when one couldn't sleep, those sort of thoughts tended to race through your brain. 

Kagome didn't sleep for the rest of the night-- which would explain why she slept in Psychology class the following day. Since the teachers for that course were an endless stream of substitutes (and who really knew why?) no one paid it any mind. 

It was a welcome relief when Inuyasha told her, four days and very little sleep later, everyone would be meeting at the ice cream shoppé on Friday night to celebrate the end of a long week. 

Since the first week of school proved to be the most difficult in recent memory (well, given that everyone had been used to a two-week break between their last school year and this one), everyone wanted an excuse to stuff ourselves with as much food as they could afford. 

Despite the welcome change in setting and atmosphere, Kagome was still much too tired to pay any mind to the various conversations going on-- Inuyasha, Kouga, Miroku and Eiji all arguing about something or another, and Sango and Kikyou exchanging quiet words about something unintelligible. For Kagome's part, she was content slurping on a chocolate malt as slow as possible, sucking up the freezing ice cream through the straw at a snail's pace. 

This would have been much more fun had it not been for the thickness of the malt-- every now and then, she sucked up too much at once, and it felt like someone had jammed an icicle up her nose. She was positive that my the time she finished the glass, she'd give myself literal brain freeze. 

"Hey," Miroku started as he popped a fry in his mouth. "What are we going to do this weekend? My house is off limits" 

"Don't look at me. You guys know what's on at my place..." Inuyasha mumbled, a cross expression coming over his face. Kikyou nodded solemnly in agreement, which only confused Kagome more. She had no idea what Inuyasha was referring to, or what situation both he and Kikyou were in that always excluded them from every situation. Curious-- but she had the sense not to ask. The two were stiff and closed-mouthed enough as it was, and they didn't need someone new in their group to prod into their personal life.

Eiji paused, glancing up at Kagome while she sucked on my malt. After massaging my straw a few times, she managed to get some more of the malt up without additional 'brain freeze.' She was merrily sucking away at her malt when Eiji's face blossomed into what could only be called a devilish grin. He looked up at the others with that selfsame grin on his face, and...

Kagome's straw was still hanging out of her mouth when Eiji spoke.

"Hey," Eiji said with a grin. "I know where we can go, provided that he agrees"

Kagome figured he'd say something like "Go to Kouga's" or somesuch, as Kouga was the only one who hadn't yet spoken. She continued sucking on my malt, listening with half an ear, while Inuyasha leaned forward curiously.

"Where?"

"Kagome's!" Eiji declared proudly, slapping her on the back as he did so.

Kagome coughed, swallowing down an entire mouthful of freezing cold chocolate malt, all at once.

"WHAAAT!" Kagome screamed.

* * *

Kagome, try as she might, couldn't get out of the situation. She begged, she pleaded, she practically whined at her friends, but they wouldn't budge, In a last ditch-effort, she tried pulling Miroku off to the side, hoping he would come to her defense with some over-blown lie. He would understand, wouldn't he?

But he only smirked and refused to listen. Kagome was in a rut, to say the least-- and since most everyone was intent on spending the weekend, as of the following morning, when the students were officially allowed to leave school grounds after morning class, Kagome had no way of getting out of it.

The problem, then, was simple-- at her house, at the shrine, Kagome was female. 100 female. There was no 'brother' Kagome. Everything at the house was related to Kagome's female-side, and there wasn't so much as a shrapnel of evidence pertaining to other relatives-- not a twin brother, and certainly not an even OLDER sister that lived in Texas.

Kagome winced, remembering that ridiculous lie, and the mess it had gotten her in.

Sango, Kagome, and Miroku ended up in the same car on the way back to school; everyone met in the school parking lot to discuss a meeting time to go to Kagome's place. The aforementioned, for her part, was busy sulking against Miroku's car-- and trying to recover from the latest insane ride. Sango had practically choked Miroku to death, and she was one of the many people supposedly **used **to Miroku's "style" of driving, if you could even call it that!

On more than one occasion, both she and Kagome had told Miroku to pull over and let one of them drive -namely Sango, as Kagome couldn't drive- but Miroku resisted. The girls suffered for the remainder of the ride, and when Kagome turned a sickly shade of green, Miroku made an innuendo about her "secret" that snapped her right back to health. Sango didn't say anything to it, passing it off as another one of Miroku's bad jokes, but she did wonder what was going on between the two 'boys.'

Kagome flopped right into bed the moment she got to her room, glad to find Hojo already sound asleep. Everything was a total mess-- she'd barely paid attention in classes most of this week, and though tomorrow had **originally** promised to be a short, relaxing day, now it was the equivalent of Doomsday for the Higurashi girl-gone-boy.

_'What in the seven hells am I going to do about **this** one?'_

* * *

The next day, classes seemed to drag on for an interminable amount of time. By the time the last bell rang, Kagome bolted out of the classroom like a shot-- but not before Inuyasha yelled to her,

"We'll see you at five!"

Kagome only groaned as she dashed out of the school. She met Souta near the bus stop heading toward their home-- his black leather satchel was stuffed full of papers, but he wasn't sporting any new bruises.

"Hey kid, ready to get out of here?" Kagome asked quickly, practically dragging Souta along the sidewalk to the bus shelter.

"Ka-Kagome! You're pulling my arm! And besides, I said I'd wait for Ri--" Souta didn't even get the chance to finish before Kagome dragged him onto an approaching bus. She slammed several coins into the machine and stomped back towards the back of the bus.

Several minutes later, when the bus was well on their way, Kagome had caught her breath and seemed to have calmed down some. Souta rubbed his arm and glared at Kagome the whole time.

"Kagome, what were you thinking? I told you I was waiting for Rin!" This time, Kagome sighed and took a deep breath before responding in a quieter tone than she'd yelled at Souta with earlier.

"Sorry, but... look Souta, I've gotten myself into a mess this weekend. Everyone's coming over to stay at the shrine. At five tonight!" Kagome hoped her words would illicit a sympathetic reaction from her brother who, being the focal point of Kagome's even **being** at YSG, understood her predicament.

But instead...

"REALLY? Inuyasha and Kouga and Miroku and ALL OF THEM?"

Kagome eyed her brother strangely and nodded, "Yes... all of them..."

"COOL! The most popular guys in the whole school, staying at MY house!" Kagome coughed slightly, to which Souta sported an embarassed blush. "Uh, our house! Mom's house? The shrine?" He offered weakly.

Kagome didn't grin, but she leaned back, slouching into the seat. "What am I going to do?"

"Ah, don't worry about it, I'm sure you'll figure something out..." Souta grinned as he stood up, as they neared their stop, "Bro."

Kagome only scowled.

* * *

Kagome barely had time to think of anything that would aid her, as the first thing that happened when she stepped into the house was a half-hour interrogation session from her mother and grandfather. They had welcomed her home with open arms, of course, but Kagome barely had a chance to get a word in edgewise-- at least, concerning tonight's "problem."

All the same, Kagome openly and honestly detailed everything about Souta's situation thus far-- and she watched as her mother's eyes widened, and began to water, and her grandfather's expression grew blanker and blanker. The wrinkles on his face became evident, creased with worry and sorrow.

"I'm watching him, though," Kagome assured them hurriedly. And it was the truth-- she made sure to peek in on Souta whenever she had the chance. But it wasn't easy, even though they were on the same campus. And younger students stayed in an entirely separate dorm, with different rules and curfews than the high school. Not to mention Souta wouldn't take kindly to being coddled. Still...

Kagome saw tears on the lashline of her mother's eyes, and bit her lip from continuing. She wouldn't be able to stand it if her mother cried, she knew that much. If her mother cried, Kagome knew she wouldn't be able to stop herself either. And she was already in a big enough bind as it was.

_'Souta... Miroku knows the truth ... __Everyone coming over soon...__These weird dreams...' _The last thing had been an afterthought, one on the farthest reaches from her mind. The night previous, she hadn't dreamed at all, but she had, for the first time that week, slept peacefully. Why then, had the very thought of the dreams, come back so suddenly, and given her such a chill?

"They'll have to get through me before they can touch Souta..." Kagome nodded firmly, rising to her feet. She wanted to get to her room as soon as possible and try to sort things out. Kagome cast one last glance back at her mother, who was smiling a solitary tear rolling down her cheek.

"Kagome, you... you're such a good brother!" She wrapped Kagome in a hug, who stood stock-solid, sweatdropping.

"MOM, I'M A GIRL!"

* * *

Kagome cast a sidelong glance at my clock while she threw things around in the guest bedroom at the house. She had to make it look like she actually **had** a brother named Kagome, that he had a room here, and that Kagome --the boy-- lived in it! It was more difficult than it seems. The red digits blinked a merry 2:26. She'd gotten home at 12:45, but Mom and Grandpa's little "interrogation session" had taken a good half hour off of her slate.

Trying to gather 'Kagome-like' things took another hour or so, so there she was, in the midst of a dark, dank, dusty room, trying to make it look 'boyish' enough for the guests. It didn't help that she wasn't comfortable in her school uniform (not to mention she'd been wearing it all week; it was desperately in need of cleaning), so she'd changed into a large shirt and a pair of short, green shorts.

Despite her haircut, her bangs were still long, so she'd pushed them back with a pair of bobby pins on either side. A bright green bandana covered her hair, to protect it from 'vicious dust bunnies,' but as it kept sliding off whenever Kagome ducked under some table or chair, it didn't seem to do much good. Though she was dust-covered and crawling on my hands and knees, she somehow looked more the part of a girl than usual. But wasn't that the point? Everyone was due to arrive at 5:00 p.m. and Kagome barely had three hours.

The room that was really Kagome's -- the one filled with girlish jewelry, my old school's uniform, and bookcases upon bookcases of shoujo manga-- that would be "Kekki's" room. Though there was no chance in hell that any of the guys would ever have the opportunity to see it... There wouldn't be any reason for them to, would there? Kagome decided she would just fabricate some lie about Kekki staying over at a friend's for the weekend, and then nothing would be out of the ordinary. Even Kagome's mother could play along-- after all, she'd already tripped up once, thinking Kagome was her 'son,' so maybe that was a blessing in disguise. Or so Kagome hoped.

Kagome spent most of her time dusting off the walls, sweeping the floor, and tottering on a step ladder to replace the room's old, long-since-burnt-out lightbulb. After that, it was just a matter of making the place look 'boyish.' So she took out some of the old posters of the Central League Teams that she had lying around-- namely, those of the Yomiuri Giants, since they were the closest team to home, and Kagome's personal favorite. They hadn't won the pennant enough to go to the Japan series in a while, but she still adored the team over any of the other five in the Central League, and certainly more than any of the six in the Pacific League, no matter how 'dynamic' sportscasters said they were.

Grandpa had tossed a picture of some Japanese model --Yuko Aoki the name on the poster read-- into the room, though Heaven only knew where he got it. Kagome plastered it up on the wall. She stood back and admired her work so far-- the poster unnerved her slightly, but the model was fully clothed, so she had nothing to worry about-- at least, nothing to worry her **female **self about. At least the poster's presence made it look like Kagome might actually be attracted to the female gender. As a boy, that is. Not as she was at the moment-- which is what she is all the time, really: a girl.

"Hey Grandpa?" Kagome called out down the hall, while still figuring out how to arrange the furniture. "Why **do** you have a picture of..." she glanced back at the poster, reading the name off, "Yuko Aoki?"

"I plead the fifth," Grandpa called back.

"We're not in America, we don't HAVE a Fifth here!" Kagome's grandfather only chuckled nervously and ambled back down the hall. She turned back to the atrocity facing her in the room. It was as good as gold, except...

"There." Kagome smirked to herself proudly, having pulled several sheets and blankets off the bed. **Now** it looked like a guy's room. Souta might be much younger than Kagome, but he was the best example she had when it came to the nature of boys. Kagome messed up her bed, strewn school papers over the old desk, and tossed an old shirt over a lampshade so that it hung crookedly.

When Kagome turned to leave the room, Grandpa stood in the doorway, a slight grin cracking the sides of his face. He rolled his eyes while he sipped his iced tea, obviously amused by Kagome's pride over her newly messy room.

"You're never going to pull this off, you know. What you need is" He whipped out a small amulet from nowhere, while I rolled my eyes the minute my glance caught on the tiny amulet. "A lucky charm! Legend has it that" Kagome snatched the charm from Grandpa before he could get into one of his long-winded 'legends' once again, then looked over the amulet.

"Hey! This would make cute hair accessory" Kagome mumbled, testing it out as she pulled the bandana off my hair. Kagome pranced around with it for a while, much to her grandfather's dismay.

Grandpa snatched the amulet back, scowling at the girl. "Kagome!" Her only reply was to grin back sheepishly.

Kagome's grandfather was a fellow of the most interesting sort-- being the sole believer in Higurashi family in the 'legends' that surrounded the family shrine. Lots of legends dated far back-- hundreds of years even, but Kagome guessed real religious belief wore off as it got down the line.

Except... well, except for her. She's quite the exception to the rule, but... again, that's spoiling the story before we hit the plot.

Grandpa also happened to be quite... well, superstitious. At baseball games, he was always seen holding one "good luck" charm, one amulet or another. Once, he'd even brought a 'dried hand of a kappa,' which is that legendary duck-thing-- some water sprite that has all its power in this bowl on top of its head. Spill the water and the kappa becomes weak, and has to do your bidding. So you can imagine what a dried HAND of one of those things would do...

Freak an entire row of fans out, that's what. Kagome and her grandfather been sitting next to a group of schoolgirls, cheering on their favorite players-- undoubtedly the youngest and most handsome from the team. Kagome herself was too focused on the sport to be like those girls, but when Grandpa whipped out that dried hand and held it up like a banner, Kagome screamed just as loudly as those girls.

Kagome managed to snatch the thing away from him before he could bring it to another game and get them kicked out-- and had lazily tossed it aside to Buyo, the fat family cat. He'd promptly chewed the thing to bits, so no more wishing-hand. Grandpa nearly had a hernia when he found the bones-- and the family was just lucky Buyo didn't get sick from that rotten old meat!

Finally satisfied with her work in the room, Kagome headed toward her room to change into something more suitable-- but the doorbell rang before she had the chance. She shot her grandfather a withering look, telling him to remember that she was Kekki, his granddaughter, and not Kagome, his grandson. She walked past the living room and into the entryway, twisting the knob and pulling the door open-- she was all ready with a polite, declining smile, expecting a solicitor with enough guts to troop up the 215 steps to the temple.

_'So ** not **a solicitor.' _

To Kagome's great surprise, Inuyasha blinked back at her. Suddenly she realized that the things that had the most profound effect on her emotions tended to be things that could be expressed in little to no words at all.

'_They're not supposed to be here now! Two hours! I **look like a girl**!' _

"Ummm" Kagome stood there, slack-jawed and open-mouthed for a what felt like an eternity. Behind Inuyasha, Miroku grinned sheepishly. Kagome felt the bile rising in her throat-- along with the desperate urge to throttle Miroku for bringing everyone so early! It was either Miroku or Eiji, because it was all Eiji's fault that they were here in the first place! And whatever reason Miroku might have had for bringing everyone early, Kagome was in no mind to hear it; Miroku had, in that short span of time, rocketed up to the top of Kagome's "Revenge List."

"Uh, you must be Kekki" Inuyasha mumbled, suddenly twisting a foot behind his other ankle. Kagome suddenly realized that Inuyasha probably didn't associate with any girls outside of the group-- that meant he only regularly spoke to Sango and Kikyou. Going to an all boys' school would do that to you, Kagome surmised, but she couldn't know for sure-- not when she herself **was** a girl!

For a moment, it almost looked as though Inuyasha was blushing-- and when Kagome realized that his line of sight was directed at her exposed thighs, she realized why. The shorts had ridden up her legs since she'd been crawling around on the floor, and now Inuyasha and Miroku both had a a fantastic view of her legs.

"Kekki?" Another voice chimed in. Kagome practiced the Gestalt approach and looked at the entire picture, instead of the details. Then she swallowed a cry of unfairness when she realized that no, it wasn't just Inuyasha and Miroku there, but, in fact, everyone. Kagome suppressed a groan as she opened the door fully as an invitation, and let everyone come inside. She was greeted with six surprised stares.

Kagome quickly plastered on a fake smile and took a step backward, sending a quick prayer to whatever god would hear her.

"You must be Kagome's friends." Kagome felt as though she was talking to herself in third person. She cast a threatening glance at Miroku, as she continued speaking.

"He's upstairs right now-- he said when you got here that he wanted to talk to you-- Miroku?" Miroku swallowed and nodded-- he knew full well that he was in trouble."I'm sure he'll be right down in a minute," Kagome smiled and motioned for Miroku to follow her upstairs.

"Come on, I'll show you to Kagome's room."

Once there, she growled at Miroku. "What the hell were you thinking, letting them come this early? I can't believe that heinous lie worked..."

Kagome rolled her eyes, catching sight of Yuko Aoki's picture on the wall. She quickly glanced away, feeling embarrassed once more.

"I couldn't exactly stop them, you know!" Miroku cried, shrugging helplessly.

"Kouga and I both pestered Inuyasha and Eiji to call before they came, but they figured we'd be on the road long enough not to worry about it."

Kagome sighed heavily, flopping down onto the messy mattress. Instinctively, she started making the bed, but she was halted in the process when Miroku sat down as if she hadn't been doing anything at all.

"But what are you going to do **now**?" he asked pointedly, making a wide gesture from Kagome's legs up to her breasts. She reddened and glared at him menacingly, forcing him back a meter. She pulled her knees up to her chest, staring off into space.

"I don't know. I can't be Kagome and Kekki at the same time, and now that Kekki's here, she can't just disappear-- not when Kagome needs to be 'entertaining guests!'" Miroku nodded sagely, while Kagome felt like socking him in the ribs.

"Tell you what," he said, grinning brightly, "why don't you have Kagome run off somewhere-- a sick grandma or grandpa or something, and you can be Kekki --yourself-- for the whole weekend!" Kagome shot Miroku a look that plainly said "You better not be trying to come on to me."

He shook his head vehemently, "Look, I'm just trying to help you out here." He smiled, an almost genuine smile, "Really." Kagome would have believed him, had his hand not snaked up her thigh. She swatted him away and sent him downstairs.

As she readied to slam my door shut, she heard Miroku say "Bad news guys!" Kagome kept her door open slightly to listen. "Kag's grandma from out of town just came down with a bad illness, and he's gotta go see her in the hospital. Something about his grandma askin' for him 'specially."

_'Nice one, Miroku!_' Kagome had to admit, it was a pretty decent excuse. The hard part was getting 'Kagome' to leave, but 'Kekki' to stay! After all, Kagome couldn't leave the temple, hop into a taxi and leave, and then mysteriously reappear as 'Kekki,' without an excuse as to where she'd gone!

Kagome dashed to her real bedroom as fast as she could, grabbing her YSG school uniform shirt and dress pants. It was the closest thing she had to a real guy's outfit, and in the week since she'd 'become a guy,' she hadn't had much time to sort through the mess Grandpa had gotten her on that shopping spree. She tumbled down the stairs while shifting a duffle bag full of old laundry onto her shoulder.

Thankfully neither her mother, grandfather, or little brother were around to hear Miroku's horrible lie-- one of them would have said something, considering Kagome's grandfather's wife --Grandma-- has been dead for seven years now, and her father's mother... well, she wasn't on the best of terms with the Higurashis since her son died.

"Uh sorry about this guys. It really came up last minute..." Kagome faked her best distraught expression. It seemed to be working; everyone looked sympathetic.

"What about Kekki?" Kouga immediately piped up. Kagome's cheeks reddened slightly, so she quickly turned away, pretending to adjust the strap on her bag."Uh, she'll stick around this weekend. So uh... yeah, watch out for her and uh, don't try nothin' funny, 'cause you know I'll hear about it." Kagome would have yelled up to 'Kekki' but she had no ventriloquist skills to show for a reply back.

"Yeah yeah, dude, she'll be in good hands. Let us know how your Grandma's doin' though!" Eiji called.

"Give us a call when you get there, so we know when you're coming back." Miroku added, winking slightly. Kagome nodded slowly, unnerved by Miroku's attitude, but she figured there was a way to actually pull the heist off-- if Miroku played his cards right, and so did she.

"Uh, better go say bye to Mom now..." Kagome ran off into the kitchen, whispering that 'Kagome' was going to visit his sick grandma, while 'Kekki' stayed the weekend. Mom tapped her on the back twice to assure Kagome that she understood, and amazingly enough, she pulled off the perfect posture and expression as she pulled away from our hug.

"Take care of Grandma now, Kagome! She wanted to see you!" Kagome nodded and grinned at her mother as she dashed outside, slamming the sliding doors closed on her way out. She curved around the side of the house, ducking into the old well house to change. It was pitch black in there, but she only needed to be in there a second, to strip out of her uniform and back into her shorts and big t-shirt. She was fumbling out of her pants when she heard the noise.

_**Skrtch skrtch**_

_'Wh... What the **hell** was that?'_

Kagome stared at the well down the stairs. She swallowed a lump that suddenly formed in her throat. Shafts of sunlight managed to peek through the roof of the old well house, and she could barely make out the lid of the well... blank as a fresh sheet of paper. Not a single ward or charm on it.

Something wasn't right. Kagome's grandfather always said that the well house was cursed, that a great magic was at work inside... of course, Kagome had never believed him, but the few times she'd snuck inside, there'd always been wards and charms decorating the well lid. She moved down, stepping towards the lid lightly, fear bubbling in her stomach.

_'The lid... it's crooked. Like it was recently replaced.' _

Kagome knew Souta was too afraid to go inside the well house, and her grandfather, no matter how superstitious he was, wasn't dumb enough to risk falling down a well. And Mom? Mom didn't care about these places...

"Buyo?" Kagome called out, timidly. There was no one else it could be but the fat, stupid cat. The door to the well house never closed completely, so it was entirely possible that Buyo sought a quiet place to sleep the day away. He'd probably chosen the well lid, knocking it --and all the wards- askew. Kagome searched the floor for the fat cat or the misplaced wards, but there was nothing. In fact, the soil had no prints in it whatsoever, except those she'd just made in her school shoes-- and... another pair?

_'Bare feet?'_

Indeed, a pair of bare footprints walked the distance from the well to the stairs, and then vanished altogether.

_'Th--This isn't happening! I'm dreaming again, this is some whacked out dream... a result of eating too much cafeteria food or something! It has to be!_****

**_Skrtch skrtch_**

The sound was louder, and this time, Kagome was sure it came from INSIDE the well.

The Bone-Eater's Well.

Kagome's grandfather's legends suddenly rung loud and clear in Kagome's mind. Legend had it that the bones of demons were at the bottom of the well. No one knew how they'd gotten there, but there they stayed, buried under centuries of sand and dirt. Kagome swallowed hard again, edging her hand towards the well lid. What was there to be afraid of? None of her grandfather's silly stories were ever true, and... well, worse case scenario? Termites! Or Buyo, that stupid, fat cat!

Swallowing her fear along with a lot of bile that had crept up her throat, Kagome slid the well lid partially open.

And she nearly screamed when two, glowing, hollow-eyed creatures stared back at her, holding something bright and warm in their bug-like claws. Kagome shrieked, shoving the lid closed before the oversized bugs could escape. Kagome began hyperventilating as she backpedaled as fast as her legs could take her, until she flopped down onto the old creaky stairs.

_What... what did I see just now?_

* * *

Kagome wandered back into the house, looking somewhat worse for the wear, and more than a little shell-shocked. Her face was pale and her eyes wide, and she made quite the sight to the guys and two girls gathered around the living room table.

"Ah... Kekki?" Miroku was the first to speak, rising to his feet when Kagome veritably stumbed over the entryway step, forgetting to take her outside shoes off entirely. Soon she'd gained everyone's attention, and had to shake herself out of her stupor.

"You okay? What happened?" Kouga asked, his brows creasing. Kagome gulped, not liking the worried tone that pervaded Kouga's voice. As far as "Kekki" was concerned, they'd just met, and hadn't even been introduced. Who was he to be so familiar with her... unless...

_'He couldn't... he doesn't know! He **can't**_ All the same, Kagome couldn't take that chance, so tried to speak as flawlessly as possible.

"I was just uh, looking for my cat. I'd gone out the back way, but I couldn't find him, and I nearly fell down the temple stairs..." It was a ridiculous lie, but they seemed to eat it-- though Miroku looked a bit more concerned. Kagome fisted her hands at her side, hating the double life she was living.

"So, Kagome's gone now... I guess you guys are stuck with me for the weekend, eh?" Kagome tried to smile brightly, hoping that this would allow her to be more open with the people she already recognized as friends. Surely she'd be more comfortable like this, right? And maybe even get along with the girls better?

Kagome cast a wary glance at Sango and Kikyou. Sango was staring at her hands on the table, while Kikyou was giving Kagome an odd look, one that unnerved the younger girl into looking away.

"I dunno, **stuck** isn't really the case here..." Miroku laughed. Kagome glared at him. "You're Miroku. Kagome told me a lot about his... perverted friend."

Miroku raised an eyebrow."He did, did he?" He leaned forward, purposely flustering the girl, "Did he tell you that you're beautiful?"

Kagome blushed to the tips of her toes, and then chewed on the inside of her lip."I think that'd be a little awkward. After all, Kagome **is** my **brother**." Kagome smirked at Miroku, who drew back, embarassed.

The guys all shared a hearty laugh at Miroku's expense, though Sango and Kikyou looked less than enthused with the current line of conversation. Kagome settled herself next to Kikyou, diagonal to Sango, and made to introduce herself to them.

"Uh, hi, I'm Kekki, Kagome's--"

"Twin sister. We know. He's told us about you," Kikyou interrupted icily, waving her hand slightly, Inuyasha shot her an irritated glance, but she ignored it, frowning slightly as her gaze met Kagome's. She seemed to be inspecting the girl, but her eyes never really left Kagome's face.

"He has?" Kagome asked, feigning innocence, "Only good things, I hope."

"O-Of course!" Miroku interrupted, quickly sensing the dangerous path the two girls were treading on. "Uh, Kekki, this is Kikyou," he gestured to the older girl, who made no move to shake hands or otherwise formally acknowledge Kekki other than to sniff up at her. "And this is Sango." He smiled at Sango, but she merely raised an eyebrow at him, nodding curtly to Kagome.

_'Not good. I'm already off to a bad start with the girls!_' Kagome thought, sinking down. She fumbled, trying to come up with a way to get on their good side without blowing her secret. It would be one thing if she told Sango -she'd sort of WANTED to, from the start- but Kikyou was a different matter altogether.

"Say!" Miroku suddenly exclaimed, breaking the defeaning silence,

"Didn't you shadow Sango last year over at YSJ? I'm sure I saw you around, maybe that's why your brother was familiar to me!" Inuyasha, Kouga, and Eiji all raised an eyebrow, wondering why Miroku had chosen **this** time to mention that little tidbit.

"Uh--" Kagome started, unsure what to say. Sango looked at her strangely, but nodded. Kikyou's eyebrow shot up in surprise, and Kagome gulped.

"You two know each other, then?" Kikyou asked, her tone suspicious. Kagome swallowed nervously, wondering what Sango would say.

"Maybe. A lot of girls shadowed me last year. You and me didn't have many classes together back then, so that's probably why you never saw her." Kikyou nodded slowly, seeming to accept this excuse, and went back to looking at her nails.

"Uhm, 'scuse me, I think I'll go get drinks in the... uh, the kitchen!" Kagome dashed off to the kitchen, but not a second behind her was Miroku, saying "I'll help!" before Kagome could even protest.

The two were alone in the kitchen, quiet for a moment before they were sure no one had folowed them or was listening in.

"From the beginning, please," Miroku said, simply.

"What? You're the one that brought them here early!" Kagome hissed.

"You think I had much of a choice? Sango convinced everyone it would be easier if we all came in my van than if we all took separate cars, and those that couldn't fit were stuck on the bus! And they wanted to leave then, and..." Miroku trailed off, going through the cabinets looking for snacks.

Kagome opened one angrily, the handle slamming on the wood door behind it. She took out some iced tea mix and slammed it on the countertop."And..." Her voice grew quiet, "I saw something out there, Miroku. When I went to change in the well-house. Something..."

"Hey, are you guys makin' out in there or what!" Eiji's voice called out to the pair, followed by a whoop from Kouga and a snicker from Inuyasha.

Kagome immediately poked her head out the doorway, glaring at Eiji."No, we were not! We were making iced tea, thankyouverymuch!"

"Oh, is that the new word for it?" Kouga laughed, though his expression seemed slightly disappointed. Kagome thought, just for a brief moment, that he could be jealous -of all people- of Miroku. How silly!

"Augh! I give up! Miroku, can you please make the iced tea on your own! I'm going upstairs to change!" Miroku called out "sure" as Kagome tromped upstairs, not looking back.

* * *

Kagome scrambled into a pair of cleaner clothes as fast as she could. The first thing she grabbed from her closet just happened to be a bright yellow sundress, patterned with a flowers. She didn't care that it was a dress and that Miroku would probably gawk at her; she would have a **talk **with him later.

When she got downstairs, Miroku was just entering the room, trying to balance an assortment of cups and an iced tea pitcher on a tray while everyone else was sitting around, either looking about the room or talking amongst themselves. Everyone, that is, except Inuyasha.

"Where'd Inuyasha... goooah...!" Miroku stumbled on the slight step leading from the kitchen to the dining room, and if Kagome hadn't slid down the rail and jumped, everyone probably would have been covered in sticky iced tea. And **that** wouldn't have been fun.

"Hah... thanks, Kekki." Miroku smiled sheepishly, while Kagome shot him an angry glare.

"He went to check out Kagome's trophies. I think he spotted them as we were coming inside." Sango answered Miroku's earlier question, rolling her eyes at him. She clamped an iron hand around his arm, seeing how close he was getting to Kagome, and Kagome mentally thanked her for that. Sometimes, Miroku was just a bit **too** lascivious...

That's when Sango's words hit Kagome dead on. Inuyasha. Looking at **Kagome's** trophies. But those trophies were really **Kagome's** --er, **Kekki's**-- which meant they had female statuettes on top, but Kagome's name on the plaques, and--!

_'Oh shitshitshitshitshit!'_

"Hey, Kekki." Inuyasha looked a bit confused, scratching behind his head as he flopped down in front of the table, "Why does your brother have a trophy for the Central League Women's Junior Pro Championships?"

Kagome gulped, hard. _'Think fast, Higurashi!'_

"Ah... well, for a while Kagome and I went to the same school-- he was on the baseball team, and I was on the softball team... and uh, we had the same coach. But come championship time, they always mixed the plaques with our names on them up. We're still waiting for the right ones to come back from the school." Kagome nodded quickly, grabbing a glass of iced tea and chugging it down._'Please let them believe that, please let them believe that...'_ she chanted in her head like a mantra. It was ridiculous, really -- some of those trophies were YEARS old, but...

"Oh!" Inuyasha said, nodding. "That'd explain it then." Kagome blanched, and cast a sidelong glance at Miroku, who seemed to be trying awfully hard to suppress a chuckle. The others didn't even seem to pay any mind to the exchange that had just taken place- they went right back to whatever it was they'd been doing.

_'If they trust me this much...' _Kagome didn't want to think of the possibility that they'd find out the truth about her identity. If they did, after putting so much trust into her, they were sure to hate her. And Kagome couldn't take that-- she liked them too much already. Kagome's mother eventually peered in, going into what Kagome nickanmed 'Mama-mode.' She started to make more iced tea and prepare snacks for everyone, chastising 'Kagome' for not telling her sooner about how his 'sweet friends' were coming over.

Silently, Kagome heaved a sigh of relief; at least she wasn't the type of Mom to start rattling off about her children's baby years or their most embarassing moments-- but it wasn't as if she could show them baby pictures.One thing Kagome always appreciated about her mother --or at least, once the whole switching genders mess happened-- was that she never seemed to have time to make baby picture albums for either Kagome or Souta. She always said she would, but she just never got around to it-- and thank goodness for that. Had the guys seen Kagome's baby pictures, they would have noted a lack of boyishness -- and then what would Kagome say? That we'd sent 'Kagome' off to live with Aunt Keiko in Hokkaido until he reached a suitable age?

Sure, maybe the guys trusted Kagome, but she knew they'd never swallow **that** load of bull. Kagome started to head to the couch, but she noticed Inuyasha and Kouga both staring at her oddly-- so she promptly made a 180 and instead headed to the loveseat, where she sat beside Sango and Miroku. Their gazes followed her there, to the point where she started feeling uncomfortable.

_'Why **would** they be comfortable around you?-- they barely hang out with girls outside of Sango and Kikyou, if at all... besides they **just** met "Kekki".' _

"Well, uh, would you like to watch some movies?"

* * *

Kagome toddled over to the video and DVD case and started to pick titles out at random. Despite the whole shelf being arranged in her mother's perfect alpha-numeric order, the majority of the movies she ended up selecting were what could have easily been branded 'chick-flicks.' Among the assortment were The Breakfast Club, The Audrey Hepburn Collection (Breakfast at Tiffany's, Sabrina, and Roman Holiday), Sixteen Candles, and... Terminator 1 and 2: the Collector's Edition.

Everyone was crowded around the TV in various spots-- and somehow Kagome ended up squished against Inuyasha on the couch. Maybe Miroku had had something to do with it, but Kagome couldn't be sure, given that him and Sango seemed to be getting pretty cozy throughout the movies. Kagome wasn't sure how she managed to get the guys to agree seeing so many 'chick-flicks,' but she supposed the assortment of Schwarzenegger movies in the playlist made up for it.

Kagome, for her part, didn't mind one bit, being just as much of an action fan as the next guy-that's-not-really-a-guy.

People were fading in and out of various stages of rest and relaxation; Kikyou had fallen asleep sometime during Roman Holiday, and Eiji and Kouga drifted off once Terminator 2 finished. As far as Kagome knew, her mother, grandfather, and brother were already sound asleep upstairs-- Kagome hadn't even seen her mother since the older woman had given her a brief lecture in the kitchen.

Ms. Higurashi wasn't mad, but she did tell Kagome to let her know in advance --one way or another-- when a group of people planned on staying over. Luckily, she didn't insist on kicking anyone out, which would have made things even more awkward for Kagome. And it was already awkward enough. Why? Well, Fate had decided to deal Kagome a tricky hand that night, and it just so happened that in the middle of Casablanca, Inuyasha and Kagome discovered themselves as the last two people awake.

Kagome was quite wired from all the iced tea she'd drunk, and the movie was interesting enough to keep her eyes open longer than the other girls, and most of the other guys, as well. When she snuck a sidelong glance at Inuyasha to see if he was even sleepy, she was surprised to find that he didn't look the least bit exhausted-- just a bit thoughtful.

"Enjoying the movie?" she whispered softly, mindful of those sleeping around us. Miroku and Sango in particular, looked awfully cute, with Sango's head pillowed on Miroku's shoulder, and Miroku's head resting gently atop Sango's.

"...I have a lot on my mind." Inuyasha answered, picking up his glass of iced tea, with nearly-melted ice cubes still bobbing along the surface. It wasn't really an answer, but Kagome decided that if his thoughts were preoccupied with something else, he couldn't very well enjoy the movie. He too, was courteous enough to keep his voice down, his eyes darting to Miroku and Sango, the sleeping pair closest to the Inuyasha and Kagome.

Kagome swallowed when her gaze wandered from Inuyasha's hands to his lips, pressed firmly against the glass as he drank the last of his beverage. As he pulled his mouth away from the now-empty cup, Kagome found herself staring at his moist lips, thinking how nice they were--

_'And completely inappropriate to be thinking about!'_ Kagome chastised herself. _'But it could be worse. I could be "Kagome,"_ _Inuyasha's guy friend, eyeing his lips with a certain kind of desire... How ridiculous!'_

"Care to share?" Kagome quickly fixed her eyes back on the screen, not exactly pleased with her line of thoughts. "You're keeping something back from me, I can tell. But that's okay, I don't expect you to tell me everything, since we just met and all..." Kagome reassured Inuyasha hurriedly.

_'Geez! I'm so nosy, no matter what gender I am!'_ Kagome thought. _'Or whatever gender I'm pretending to be..._' she amended a moment later.

Inuyasha shrugged easily. "Just some family issues."

Kagome noticed him glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, so she smiled slightly.

"I hope you don't mind us imposing here, for the night. We all have our own reasons for not wanting to be home tonight." Kagome nodded, accepting his reason, though, of course, wanting to know more. Instead of prying, however, Kagome just stared at the screen.

Rick was just telling Sam to play the song he had composed for Ilsa.

_**"You must remember this... a kiss is just a kiss..."**_

"It's nothing big, though. Well, actually, it kind of is, I suppose. I was planning on telling your brother this tonight, but he isn't here, so you're the next best thing." He smirked slightly at those words.

"Anyway, my dad's will was found recently..." Kagome stared at him, shocked.

_'His father is...?'_

"Yeah," Inuyasha murmured, slumping lower, "My dad died a while back. We all figured he didn't leave a will, but my older brother insisted he had. So now that the will's been found, there's this big to-do about who gets what, and whether it's even legit or not." Inuyasha scowled, "Sesshomaru's always had something against me, you know in that 'brotherly love, I hate you' kind of way, I guess, but he just won't back down from this. And Mom... well, she's not getting any better..."

Kagome stayed silent.

_'His father dead, his brother selfish, and his mother sick. Poor Inuyasha...'_

But Kagome doubted he wanted any pity, and she couldn't exactly offer him honest sympathy-- her family probably seemed like a dream compared to his. Despite Souta's abuse and school and the Higurashi patriarch having died some years ago, Inuyasha seemed to have a lot less to fall back on than Kagome did.

He sighed quietly, refusing to even look Kagome's way. "Losing Dad was hard..."

"I know," Kagome mumbled. She vividly remembered the day her father died-- and all the days leading up to it. She remembered his funeral, and how she hated herself for not being able to cry. And from that day forward, she hated the smell of almost every flower, save sunflowers --her father's favorite-- and roses.

**_"A sigh is just a sigh.."_**

"How do you know?"

"My-- my Dad died too... about four years ago." Kagome swallowed, my eyes suddenly watering. But Kagome didn't want tonight to turn into some big sad sobfest, so she quickly rubbed her face to prevent the tears from falling. Silence reigned after her brief confession.

**_"The fundamental things apply as time goes by.."_**

"I'm sorry to hear that, Kekki," Inuyasha said, and it sounded like he really meant it.

"It's okay. I got over it." Kagome gulped-- it was yet another lie, but one she'd been telling myself --and all her sympathetic friends-- for years. She hoped that **pretending** she was strong would somehow make her stronger in reality.

"You shouldn't have had a reason to have to get over it, though, if you can understand what I just said," Inuyasha said, stretching his arms over the couchframe. If Kagome leaned just a little back, his arms would be around her... _'But I'm strong-- I don't need comfort, I don't need help!'_ At least, that what Kagome convinced herself of.

"I understand perfectly, don't worry. I guess we all have our inner demons, huh?" Of course, back then, she had no idea how true that statement was.

"It happens to the best of us. I'll get over it. Maybe my brother will get over it, too. He probably just wants to find something in himself that believes he loves Dad still. I mean... even if..." He trailed off and shook his head, stopping. Kagome didn't press further.

**_"And when two lovers woo, they still say 'I love you'..."_**

Kagome nodded reassuringly, then reached over and rubbed in Inuyasha's shoulders in a comforting manner. "I'm sure everything will be all right, Inuyasha."

She smiled at him, and he smiled back.

"Thanks. Sorry for keeping you up. You can go to sleep, now." Inuyasha murmured, turning away quickly. Perhaps it was her imagination, but Kagome swore she saw him blush.

**_"On that, you can rely."_**

Kagome kept smiling at him, and eventually he met her gaze again-- the two of them were probably staring at each other for a good five minutes, while Kagome remained oblivious to the movie playing in the background. Once she realized that the movie had just gone on for about ten minutes since she last even looked at the screen, and she was **still** staring at Inuyasha, she turned tomato red, swiftly looking away from his piercing gaze.

"Y-yeah. Thanks."

Thankful for the dark, Kagome curled up on her side, letting her eyes drift shut. She could have sworn she heard Inuyasha whisper Humphrey Bogart's famous line.

"Here's lookin' at you, kid."

**_"No matter what the future brings as time goes by.." _**

* * *

Kagome was sound asleep during the ending credits of Casablanca when Souta suddenly came thundering down the stairs, his eyes wide and his face pale. The noise quickly awoke Kagome, along with Sango, Kouga, and Miroku. Everyone tiredly rubbed their eyes, staring at the youngster who'd caused the commotion.

Souta was panting slightly, leaving a groggy Kagome wondering what was wrong.

"B-B-Big Sister! B-B-B--" Kagome raised an eyebrow at Souta's stuttering, whether he was actually out of breath or he was just unnerved at the presence of so many of his 'idols' and the 'popular guys' from YSG.

"Spit it out, Souta, I **was** sleeping, you know." Kagome glared at her little brother, wanting to get back to the comforting, warm recesses of her newly-formed niché-in-the-couch.

"It's Buyo!" Souta spoke in a rush, his eyes wide, "He's still missing, and I can't find him anywhere!" Kagome rose from her sleeping position immediately. While sometimes annoying, the fat feline was a family pet, one that Kagome and Souta both loved dearly. And it wasn't like Buyo to be out of the house at this time of the night; he was a housecat, and not the type to go stalking off in the middle of the night, searching for adventures.

Since he was little, Buyo had often slept on Souta's bed, providing a source of comfort to the boy in difficult times. Occasionally, Buyo found himself on Kagome's bed, rather than Souta's, and it was on those nights that the boy had trouble sleeping. But, since he spent more days in his dorm room at YSG, that never appeared to be a problem anymore. Yet it was, this one particular weekend, as Kagome and Souta were both spending the weekend at the temple.

"What'samattah?" Miroku grumbled sleepily, "Jus' let the dumb cat wander and he'll be back in the morning." Kagome frowned slightly; the temptation was there to do just that, but one look at her brother's upset face forced her out of her comfortable place by Inuyasha's side.

"Can't do that, Miroku," she grumbled. "Buyo's a housecat, anyway, it's not like him not to be back at this time."

When Kagome approached Souta, he informed her in a raspy pant that he'd already searched most of the house and grounds, and that was why he was still up so late-- he hadn't been able to sleep, knowing that Buyo wasn't there.

"Guys, you can go back to sleep," Kagome said, smirking at Sango, who was tiredly trying to move Miroku's hand from her leg, It just kept flopping back there, and Sango seemed too exhausted to do anything about it after the umpteenth time.

"I can find Buyo on my own." Inuyasha gave the girl an odd look, as if he was about to ask her if she really needed help or not, but he kept silent. Souta and Kagome slipped out into the dark night, flashlight in hand, looking for Buyo.

"Did you check all the buildings?" Kagome asked, eying the shrine building, the main house, the laundry room, and... the old well house. She gulped. She wasn't sure if what she'd seen earlier was a dream or not, but she was trying quite hard to forget all about it. Maybe Buyo would really be in there this time, and Kagome would have an excuse to check the well and confirm her fears-- for better or for worse.

"D-Did you check the old well house?" Kagome asked, trying to keep her voice smooth. Souta stopped in his tracks and stared at her, disbelieving.

"Are you nuts? I'd never go in there, Sis, you **know **that!" Kagome rolled her eyes, wondering how Souta could be such a scaredy-cat at twelve. And here he was, proclaiming left and right that he was a "big boy," and could take care of himself.Kagome sighed heavily.

"I thought I heard Buyo in there earlier... maybe the cat got stuck in the well or something." Souta frowned a little, but nodded, starting to walk again and head in the general direction of the well-house.

Kagome felt an odd chill creep down her back when she neared the door of the place; it was slightly ajar and had been swinging in the wind. The creaking sound it made unnerved her to the core, even as she stepped inside the well-house with flashlight in hand. Souta remained behind, standing in the doorway nervously as his eyes searched the area for their obese cat.

"Okay, I'll check the well... don't go anywhere, okay, kid?" Kagome's voice echoed as she started to walk -ever-so-slowly- down the steps to the well. Once again, she found the well-lid bare, and slightly open. Her hand trembled as if frozen, and Kagome had to swallow to muster up her courage to push the lid back. When she did, and shone her flashlight, she couldn't see anything. For some odd reason, the light didn't reach the bottom of the well.

Kagome couldn't make out the sides of the well, the dirt at the bottom, or anything else. Rather, her flashlight illuminated a rope ladder fixed to the side of the well, with two of its loops nailed firmly into the rim of the well, securing it in place.

Kagome fingered it lightly a moment, wondering why on Earth there would be a ladder going down a well. But then again, this well was strange-- never in Kagome's life had it ever had water in it, and it never appeared to, either, given that there was never any pulley-system attached to it. It was simply a big hole in the ground, with a wooden box built around it-- and a ladder going down into its inky depths.

**Skrtch skrtch**

"Buyo?" Kagome called out, timidly. There was another noise, and something that sounded suspiciously like Buyo's pitiful meow. Kagome rolled her eyes and looked at the flashlight. Yes, the cat had gone and gotten itself stuck in the well. How in the world he'd managed that, only the gods knew. She juggled her flashlight for a few moments, setting it on the well-rim once she'd climbed over it and slipped onto the third rung of the ladder. She tucked it into her pocket, the light shining upwards, as Kagome descended down the ladder.

But her feet never touched ground, and her eyes never saw Buyo. She suddenly dropped from the ladder, and fell into the inky blackness with a scream.

"Kagome? Kagome!" Souta yelled, suddenly running into the well house. He shone his flashlight into every corner, finally scuttling on wobbly legs to the well-- but she wasn't there. She wasn't anywhere. The bones at the bottom of the well gleamed right back at him.

When Souta looked up, he yelped-- Buyo sat on the well-lid, meowing as if nothing was wrong.

* * *

_'Where... am I?'_ Kagome moaned, rubbing her head.

_'I fell to the bottom of the well?_' Kagome looked up, rubbing her eyes. Still dark. She thought she saw some odd shadows hovering above her, in the distance, and called out.

"Souta! Souta, hey! I know you're there! Come on, I need you to help me get out of here!"

But there was no reply.

_'That coward! He probably ran off.'_ In retrospect, Kagome realized that Souta rightfully thought something had happened to her when she screamed -instead of taking it as a potential joke, or an accident. Kagome wasn't the type to play mean practical jokes on her brother, but the younger boy was still scared of many things.

"Great," she mumbled to herself, trying to find her flashlight. In her fall, it had slipped out of her pocket, and she resorted to groping around the well-floor to find it. But it wasn't there.

"Huh. Maybe it got caught in the ladder...?" Kagome slowly started groping the sides of the wall, hoping to at least brush upon the last rung of the ladder. She remembered falling-- and it had felt like quite a distance, but she could at least hold out some hope. But instead of her fingers brushing against rope or packed soil, her fingers felt...

_'Ivy?'_

Indeed, thick vines wound all the way up the walls of the well, and Kagome was sure they hadn't been there before. After all, where would they come from? There were no ivy plants anywhere near the well's base on ground level...

A sinking sensation blossomed in the pit of Kagome's stomach, and she realized she had little choice but to try finding her way up by climbing the vines, and hopefully finding some rocks or holes to stand on. For a good hour or so, this was what Kagome did, until she finally made it out of the well, panting and glistening with sweat.

She rose, trembling to her feet, and then realized with a start that she was no longer in the well-house. Rather, she was outside, surrounded by tall trees and waving grasses. Above her, thousands of stars glistened in the late night sky, the moon hanging low towards the horizon.

_'What-- the ... where...?'_ Kagome gulped hard. This was impossible. But as she stumbled forward on tired legs, touching trees and shrubs, she realized with a sickening sensation that it was all **very** real. She wandered for a few minutes, suddenly seeing the tall shadow of the Goshinboku tree on the ground.

_'The Goshinboku! Now I know I'll be able to find my way home!'_ Kagome didn't give her current scenery much thought, not realizing that, given the position of the Goshinboku from where she was currently standing, she **should**, by all rights, already BE in her home.

But she wasn't, because her home hadn't been built yet-- wouldn't be built, not for another five centuries...Kagome reached the tree, brushing branches and vines out of her way as she ran towards the monumental tree. She stared at it, in awe and a strange sense of familiarity. This had to be the Goshinboku-- it couldn't be anything else-- but... it wasn't.

Her Goshinboku didn't have such large, tangling roots, and didn't have such a large, white scar, ripping the bark in the middle of the tree clean open. It almost appeared as if something had been fixed to the tree, and then was forcefully ripped off.Everything was strange and frightening, but still somehow familiar.

Off in the distance, Kagome saw a light, dim and flickering, like that of a small fire. Resolutely, Kagome headed towards it, hoping she'd find someone -**anyone**- that could explain things to her.

* * *

Meanwhile, 500 years in the future, a shocked Souta ran back to the house, tripping over the entryway, letting the cat in his arms skitter up the stairs.

"U-Upperclassman Inuyasha! Upperclassman Miroku!" Souta called, easily awakening all present. Eiji grumbled as Souta's hollers awoke him from the recesses of a dreamless sleep, along with the others that had heard the younger boy's cries.

"Wha?" Miroku asked, 'accidentally' groping Sango while he fumbled to sit upright. She socked him in the arm, causing him to wince, but he said nothing, immediately seeing the fear and worry creasing the youngest Higurashi's face.

Inuyasha was already awake, and upon hearing his name called, he turned to the source, his eyebrows raised when he realized it was Souta. His one encounter with the boy had been back with Kagome at the carnival, when his friend had been teasing his little brother about the girls he was with. Inuyasha had thought it cute, how much the boy blushed, but couldn't have imagined the two boys -the one from then, and tonight's Souta- being one and the same.

"It's K-Kekki!" Souta stuttered, almost revealing Kagome's real identity, "S-She fell down the well while looking for Buyo, and she's not there anymore!"

Inuyasha rose slightly, his arm tensing on the arm of the sofa.

"'Fell down the well'?" Inuyasha saw that Souta had a small flashlight sticking out of his pocket, and gestured towards it. "Didn't you check down the well with your flashlight?"

"I did!" Souta cried, taking the flashlight and angrily throwing it to the floor with a clatter. "But there was nothing at the bottom of the well but the old demons' bones..."

"'Old demon bones'?" Sango repeated, her eyes wide. She too, rose to her feet, eyeing Souta.

"Y-Yes. It's the old Bone Eater's Well. There's some legend attached to it, but Sis never put much stock into them. But then she went down the well, and I heard her scream, and--"

It didn't seem as if any more words were needed. Everyone --save Kikyou, who sat in the corner of one couch, her face expressionless-- rose to their feet.

"Got some more flashlights?" Inuyasha held his hand out to Souta, who grinned.

* * *

When Kagome reached the source of the light, it was indeed a fire-- but one growing dim quickly. Whoever had been there before -if anyone had- wasn't there now. The fire was dying, and fast.

Kagome looked around, hoping to find someone -or traces of where the person who'd made the fire had gone- but there was not a soul in sight.Rather, she saw the dark shadows of a small village-- huts and shacks, put together using wood and clay, many with straw and bamboo roofs.

"What kind of a place is this? Some sort of virtual reality... or role-playing game?"

She wandered from place to place, wondering where she was. Many of the buildings had windows, which revealed the still-glowing embers of dead fires, cooking pots left unattended and boiled over, and...

_'Weapons?'_

Inside the largest of the huts was a small fire with a pot hanging over it, herbs poking out of the cast-iron lid, their infusion casting a strong smell throughout the room. And on the floor lay a series of strange weapons-- a sword in its sheath, a long staff, and...

_'A giant boomerang? Waitasec, what kind of a place **is** this?' _Kagome backed away from the building, looking about her hastily. This had to be some sort of a joke, an illusion, a dream. But-- the trees had felt real. The smell of the boiled herbs, the charred embers, and the boiled-over stew... And when a slight breeze ran through the village, **that** felt real.And suddenly Kagome believed it all. She wasn't in any kind of an illusion, and it was no dream. Everything she saw, smelt, heard, and felt was VERY real-- and very familiar.

_'The... the vision I had at Yura's! It was of this place! And... and that **is** the Goshinboku. But... it's a long, long time ago...' _She wasn't entirely sure how she knew this, but as she stumbled back towards the Goshinboku, every ounce of doubt drained from her mind. This place felt familiar to her --maybe **too** familiar, as if it had become more comfortable than her own home-- but, being alone in a cold, dark, ancient village didn't do much to assuage her fears.

The moon was even lower in the sky now-- almost touching the horizon, and Kagome realized that it was probably long after midnight, perhaps into the earliest morning hours already. She had no idea where she was, or how to get back home. Upset, scared, and lonely, she crumpled onto one of the largest roots of the Goshinboku, clutching her knees to her chest and crying into her arms.

"Inuyasha...!" she whispered softly, unsure why it was his name that came to her lips when she felt she needed comfort and protecting the most.

* * *

"Kekki?" Inuyasha paused in front of the great Goshinboku tree, looking around. For a moment there, he'd been sure he heard her voice-- crying out his name. _'Feh! Wishful thinking, idiot. Keep looking!'_

Inuyasha shook his head and looked around, not seeing Kekki anywhere. Hefting his flashlight once more, he continued looking, making his way farther and farther from the Goshinboku... and the well-house.

* * *

The stars were beginning to fade when Kagome finally rose, and silently stumbled back to the well. She looked at it, staring bleakly into the darkness. She'd found herself coming out of **this** well when she fell down the well in her home. Maybe there was some connection?

But why? Why would a well in her house -shrine or no, legends or not- lead to a place so much like her own home, but hundreds of years in the past? Where there didn't seem to be any people in the village, any animals in the forest, or any...

_'Any what? Is there supposed to be something else here? Someone else?'_ Kagome wasn't sure. An uneasy feeling swept over her. Yes, she was sure, there was something she was forgetting. But she had to get out of here, because it was cold, lonely, and... dangerous. Yes, dangerous.

_'Who was it that never told me to go wandering off on my own in places like this? Bah, how silly. It's not like I go and get lost in strange forests every day...'_

Still, something in the back of her mind -a distant echo, a faded memory of a voice- was warning her. Kagome sat on the rim of the well, her legs dangling over into the blackness. In the dark, she couldn't make out the bottom of the well, let alone the legendary demon bones said to reside at the bottom. She'd never believed in Grandpa's strange superstitions and old legends, but now, after having fallen through a well to the past, she was starting to doubt her own beliefs.

Before she could put much thought into what she **did** believe, a sudden headache struck, like ringing in her ears. A blur of faces and scenery bled past her vision, too fast for her to make anything particular out, but she remembered every single sensation she got from each image.

Fear...

Worry...

Desperation...

Anger...

Loneliness...

Curiosity...

Amusement...

Courage...

Hope...

Love...?

_'Why love? Who did I--'_

Before Kagome could give the strange emotions a second thought, she pitched forward into the inky darkness of the Bone Eater's Well.

* * *

Inuyasha gathered everyone back up in the living room, with all the lights turned on and the television off.

"Okay guys, it's been three hours now. Kekki didn't strike me as the type to suddenly decide to go on a jaunt around town at midnight, so something must have happened to her."

Souta fidgeted uncomfortably in the corner, wondering if he should tell everyone about the legend of the well. All present were attentive to Inuyasha's words, though some looked surprised that he was taking charge and being logical with his approach of the situation.

"We searched almost all the buildings, and I checked upstairs in her bedroom, and Kagome-kun's bedroom," Sango began, keeping her voice low. Kekki, Kagome, and Souta's mother and Grandfather were still asleep upstairs, and the teens didn't want to uncecesarily worry her family members of Kekki's odd disappearance some hours before.

"Nothing." Sango finished quietly. Like Inuyasha, she believed something was pretty odd about the whole situation. It was really just an odd feeling she got around Kekki -maybe she really **had** shadowed her last year at YSJ?- but... there was something else. Like Kekki didn't disappear because she **wanted** to, but because...

_'What am I thinking? If I had any idea where Kekki was, she'd be with us right now.'_ Sango chastised herself, glancing from each face to the next. Beside her, Miroku looked unusually serious and worried, and Sango couldn't help but thing that he felt something for Kekki, and that was why he appeared so concerned.

_Geez! That's silly... Miroku is just a stupid, crazy, pervert anyway...' _Still, the thought saddened Sango."So we'll split up into teams or something, search the grounds systematically this time, checking every place Kekki might--"

Miroku's eyes widened as a shadow appeared in the doorway,

"Kekki!" Inuyasha looked at Miroku, annoyed, "Yeah, Miroku, we're looking for Kekki, now sit down before--"

The screen door opened fully this time, revealing a pale Kagome, her sundress ripped and soiled in various places. Her own skin had several cuts and bruises on it -who knew where from- and she was pale and trembling, with blank, watering eyes.

She reached a hand out to everyone, her eyes widening as she saw each face, and then she collapsed, Inuyasha luckily catching her before she hit hard wood.

* * *

**NOTES:**

(1) Notice I changed 'Mayu' in the original SD to 'Satsuki.' That's the name of Shippou's first love, which I believe happens sometime around episode 105? Something like that. I didn't use Mayu because I couldn't find a plausible way/reason to bring her back to life- and it would be waay too sad, anyways.

(2) Also, I made Miroku the first to find out, rather than Sango! Sango will find out... eventually. You'll just have to keep reading as to how!

(3) I'm still sticking to the Japanese grade/school day system. They DO have classes on Saturday, but they're half-days, and sometimes devoted entirely to clubs, sports, cleanup, or special meetings. But most of the time, they're just shortened classes. Hence Kagome having classes Saturday morning, and her taking the bus with Souta, instead of having a ride from somebody.

(4) All the movies mentioned herein are property of their respective owners. P

(5) As for Inuyasha telling Kekki about his situation with his brother/mother (which **is** different from SD) I'll give the same explanation that Clara did-- everyone else in the group knows already, and Inuyasha told Kekki because... well, he wanted to. And he would have originally told Kagome, but, Kekki **is** Kagome (is "family" anyway, in Inuyasha's eyes) and has understood what Inuyasha's gone through.

**THANK YOUs:** P Not so many reviews this time, which is sort of sad... Oh well. But THANK YOU, dear reader, for getting this far. I hope you liked it, so tell me what you think!

_See you next chapter!_ _Azurite_ - 


End file.
